The Menorca Island Council government does not intend to heed UNESCO's advice. Despite the pronouncement from the leading international body for heritage preservation, which recommends abandoning the Rafal Rubí viaduct and reaching a consensus on an at-grade road solution for this crossing of the main road between Mahón and Alaior, the team led by Adolfo Vilafranca announced this Friday that it will proceed with the project. The Councilors for Culture and Heritage, Joan Pons Torres, and for Mobility, Juan Manuel Delgado, appeared together to denounce the "political maneuver" by the Ministry of Culture and to make it clear that "we will not back down," since, "for us, the safety of the people of Menorca comes first." Both councilors accused the Ministry of "wanting to endanger Talayotic Menorca with the aim of harming the Island Council's governing team." Pons Torres emphasized that this is a "very serious act of disloyalty towards Menorca, towards all Menorcans, and above all, towards the Consell's staff." Specifically, the Popular Party criticizes the Ministry for sending external reports to UNESCO that lack the endorsement of the Consell Insular's technical staff and whose sole purpose is to obtain a negative report and harm the road improvement project in the Rafal Rubí section, promoted by the Popular Party government. Joan Pons, who is also the spokesperson for the governing team, criticized the lack of transparency and opacity that, in his view, the Ministry practices, since it has never informed the Council of all the documentation submitted to ICOMOS and UNESCO. The Popular Party councilor warned that "it would be very serious" if the reports favorable to the viaduct, issued by the institution's Highways Department technicians, had not also been sent to Paris. He also contradicted the Ministry, stating in its report that the support for the project from the Scientific Council of the Menorca Talayotic Agency was unclear, when—he commented—an absolute majority of its members voted in favor of the heritage impact assessment. Even so, some experts, such as the candidacy coordinator himself, Cipriano Marín, have resigned in recent months in disagreement with the island government. Eight years of paralysis

Likewise, the councilors suspect that the legal report concluding that the Rafal Rubí bridge cannot be demolished has not been submitted to UNESCO either. They argue that if a serious accident occurs and the viaduct is not yet finished, claims for damages could be made against the engineers and politicians involved. Therefore, they insisted, "the bridge will be finished. After eight years of paralysis, we will complete the main road renovation, acting with the utmost protection of the landscape and heritage." The UNESCO report, however, is clear. It warns that the current proposal will negatively impact the landscape of the navetas (prehistoric stone structures) and affect the integrity and authenticity of the landscape declared as having Outstanding Universal Value. The report even mentions other sections of the road with less traffic where far less impactful solutions have been implemented than the one planned for Rafal Rubí.

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The First Section of the Administrative Chamber of the National Court has dismissed the appeal filed by the developer Edivissa seeking recognition of its right to obtain a coastal concession to operate the 9,215-square-meter plot of land that has been used for decades as a parking lot within the public domain and on the Alaior coast in southern Menorca. The judges rejected Edivissa's claim to recover the uses and rights it held before the current Coastal Law came into effect in 1988, when it did charge vehicles for parking, and upheld the decision made in February 2022 by the Ministry of the Environment. The fact that the parking lot was not authorized before the coastal delimitation, as proven by the Alaior Town Council, is essential for the Court, which concludes that "an unlicensed activity does not establish the right to continue it when it persists over time. The fact that the uses have been tolerated all these years does not imply a license." With this argument, the Court invalidates Edivissa's argument, which claimed that the plot has been used as a beach parking lot since 1973 and that the Coastal Law allows for the maintenance of uses existing prior to the 1988 delimitation, even if they are not legal. The developer maintains that "there was tacit authorization, since the operation of the parking lot was known and even promoted by the Alaior Town Council, which has carried out improvements to the esplanade." It even recalls that the Ministry of the Environment has endorsed the public interest of the parking facility, which Edivissa believes is "compatible" with the environmental values of the protected area in which it is located.

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In Alaior, 56 families have faced eviction from their rental apartments on Avenida de la Virgen del Toro since the beginning of the year. The developer who built the building has gone bankrupt, leaving a debt of over €12 million. This situation has prompted the Mahón Court to put them up for auction. The tenants fear losing their leases and being forced to leave, but they are resisting. After knocking on every door of the Administration, they are clear that they will not give up. Currently, it is very difficult to find enough rental apartments to live in on the Menorcan real estate market.

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Alaior, a municipality governed by the PP, has repaired this Thursday the memory of Josep Seguí Sintes, Pepe de Son Mannà, a peasant born in 1905 and imprisoned during the Civil War for being a republican, who, thanks to his kindness, was saved from being murdered by Franco's regime.

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The Civil Guard, as part of Operation Zahori, sealed off an illegal well located at a rural tourism site in the municipality of Alaior, which was discovered during a routine inspection. The operation was carried out last weekend in collaboration with inspectors from the Government's Department of Water Resources.

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