The water crisis in Pla de Mallorca is entering a new chapter in terms of savings due to the lack of water resources in the region. The Algaida City Council yesterday approved a motion from the PSIB governing team, through which the plenary session requests the Consell de Mallorca to stop using water from the municipality's aquifers "with urgency" for the cleaning and maintenance tasks of the Manacor road (Ma-15). The motion was approved unanimously by all parties present in the plenary session, PSIB, PP, and MÉS per Algaida.

MÉS per Mallorca has accused Llorenç Galmés's government of "dismantling environmental guarantees" to facilitate the arrival of waste from Ibiza to Mallorca. The eco-sovereignist party maintains that the modification of the conditions initially foreseen for the transfer confirms that the Council is adapting the rules to the project's needs, instead of prioritizing the island's environmental interests.

The Consell de Mallorca does not find "any notable relevance" in the private use of the island institution's cars by the vice president of Vox, Pedro Bestard. To reach this conclusion, it has been necessary to wait weeks, until the two reports commissioned by president Llorenç Galmés were completed. The first was carried out by the Technical Secretariat of the Department of Environment and states that Bestard still keeps three cars for his exclusive use, that he lied about their signage and that he has made unjustified use of them unrelated to his position, in addition to keeping them to the detriment of the needs of the officials in his area. The second report was carried out by the General Secretariat and the Council's Intervention, and it is precisely this one that indicates that it cannot be deduced that the use of the cars is improper. This document is limited to recommending that an instruction be issued to regulate the use of Council vehicles.

Bestard has three cars for his exclusive use, while his department has 19 unused ones and suffers the consequences of an aging fleet that urgently needs renovation. This is one of the conclusions in the report by the Technical Secretariat of Environment of the insular institution, which highlights the inappropriate use of cars by Bestard, to which ARA Balears has had access. A Dacia Sandero (acquired at the end of 2023), a Ford Ranger (2024), and a Subaru Crosstrek (2026) are the three cars that the vice-president of the Consell de Mallorca has arrogated to himself, even though he can use an official car for his travel. In fact, the document points out that, in the case of the Dacia, only Bestard has the keys and that on one occasion he lost them (this incident involved an expense of 430 euros).

The Consell de Mallorca inaugurated this Friday the new Hunting Center of Mallorca, located on the Sa Mola Vella estate, in Son Macià, an facility intended to promote the practice of hunting and its role in land management. The opening coincided with World Environment Day.

The Supreme Court has admitted for processing the appeal by the Consell de Mallorca to demand the definitive removal of the bus-VAO lane on the Ma-19 highway. In the ruling, the high court orders the referral of the proceedings to the Fifth Section of the Supreme Court, which will be responsible for issuing the final judgment and determining whether the prior binding report from the body that owns a road is mandatory solely for the initial implementation of a bus-VAO lane, or if it is also a requirement for subsequent annual agreements that determine its maintenance or extension.

The president of the Consell de Mallorca, Llorenç Galmés, has called an extraordinary plenary session next Friday to approve the law regulating vehicle flow on the island. The Popular Party plans to approve the measure without Vox, which has strongly opposed it. For now, it already has the support of MÉS per Mallorca, which has given a "welcome" to the PP for a rule that the left had proposed. The PSIB has also shown itself in favour of the initiative, although it has not guaranteed its support until the text is analysed. Once it moves forward, the text must be sent to Parliament for it to be processed and given final approval.

The Consell de Mallorca upholds the Supreme Court (TS) ruling that annuls the state's single registry of tourist rentals, considering that the State lacks the competence to impose this regulation against existing autonomous systems.

The Museum of Mallorca received this Wednesday the portolan chart of Pere Rossell dated 1447, one of the most outstanding pieces of medieval Mallorcan cartography, which the Consell de Mallorca acquired in April from the Sotheby's auction house in London.

MÁS per Mallorca has this week kicked off various primary processes. In a month, the list leaders of the main candidacies will be proclaimed, but there are already some names appearing in the quinielas. Lluís Apesteguia will repeat as list leader for the Parlament. The mayor of Manacor, Miquel Oliver, is emerging as the option for the Consell de Mallorca, and among the options to replace him in the City Council, councilor Ferran Montero has gained strength. Palma is the big unknown: the leadership offered former minister Fina Santiago to be number one, but she has not accepted the proposal. As a B option, the name of professor David Pujol is being considered. But this has a handicap: there would be no woman among the prominent list leaders.

The socialist group of the Consell de Mallorca has accused the president of the Consell de Mallorca, Llorenç Galmés, of hiding the island institution's agreements with large vacation rental platforms, such as Airbnb. In a statement, the party assures that it has registered "multiple information requests" in this regard from both the Presidency and Tourism departments, without being able to access the documentation. Faced with this, the group will report the facts to the Council of Transparency of Spain, as it already did last week following the Consell's refusal to provide the agreement that enables the transfer of waste from Ibiza to be incinerated in Mallorca.

Pedro Bestard ordered that one of the new vehicles acquired by the Department of Environment of the Consell de Mallorca be reserved for him and that it not be labeled as an official car of the institution. "This car, reserve it for me," sources familiar with the matter confirm that Bestard said, who would be responsible for not labeling it.

"It is impossible to put an end to illegal tourist offerings." This is how forceful an inspector from the Consell de Mallorca, who wishes to remain anonymous, is in conversation with ARA Balears. She knows firsthand the work done by the 26 inspectors of this island institution, who monitor both regulated and unregulated offerings. According to this source's account, it is much easier to detect infringements by licensed owners than to penalize those who operate outside the system. "It's not easy at all to prove there's illegal offering," she points out: "They are very clever." In this regard, she warns that, although fines have been toughened, her perception is that "very many procedures expire.

The racism and the national priority criterion of Vox have played a trick on the Consell de Mallorca, which has approved the second package of social measures to mitigate the effects of the war in Iran. The requirement to prove five years of continuous residence in Mallorca demanded by the far-right has generated a paradox: if you are from Minorca, Ibiza, or Formentera and have been living in Mallorca for less than five years, you are not entitled to receive any aid from the island institution, no matter how vulnerable your situation; on the other hand, if you are an immigrant who has exceeded five years of residence, you can receive it. In summary: the criterion imposed by Vox will exclude people whom the far-right considers 'nationals' and will help others against whom Vox rails daily in the institutions of the Islands. The question at this point is: had Vox calculated the impact of this demand?

The desire for fun has no age limit. The celebration of an 'horabauxa' is one of the novelties with which the Feria de la Gent Gran (Great People's Fair), organized by the Consell de Mallorca, will close in Porreres on April 25th. It is a festival that in its previous edition in 2025 brought together up to 3,000 people in ses Salines.

The Consell de Mallorca, together with representatives of MÉS por Mallorca, El Pi, Vox and the PP, have signed a joint initiative for to demand that the state government approve a new highway agreement which would allow investment of up to 350 million euros in the island's road infrastructure. The PSOE is the only group not participating in the request.

Mallorca now boasts its first officially approved public climbing walls for regional, national, and international competitions. The Sant Ferran sports center today inaugurated two new facilities—one for speed climbing and one for lead climbing—which will expand the island's climbing offerings, previously primarily limited to private initiatives. The event included an exhibition by elite athlete Erik Noya and a demonstration by young Mallorcan climbers from the Balearic Mountain and Climbing Federation's training program.

"We must put restraint on the table. Now is the time to stop. It's time to set limits." These were the words of the president of the Council of Mallorca, Llorenç Galmés, in May 2024 at the press conference where he announced that the island institution would reduce the number of tourist accommodations in Mallorca. The announcement made it clear that the Popular Party admitted the island was saturated and, moreover, it perfectly aligned with the flagship measure that the president still intends to implement, despite being stalled: limiting the entry of vehicles. "The goal is to feel visited, not invaded," proclaimed the former island councilor for Tourism, Marcial Rodríguez, to reinforce Galmés's idea. With just over a year left in his term, the president has still not implemented any measures against saturation. In fact, Galmés's strategy against saturation is clear: make grand announcements while opening new markets to attract more visitors to Mallorca. The Balearic Islands are projected to receive over 19 million tourists in 2025, 13.55 million of whom will visit Mallorca. In this context, the Consell (Island Council) has signed agreements for new routes with airlines such as Etihad, which will operate three weekly direct flights from Palma between Mallorca and Abu Dhabi starting in June. In fact, the capital of the United Arab Emirates is a crucial connection point to Asia. Currently, connecting the Balearic Islands with the Asian continent requires a layover in Frankfurt. "Some people prefer to pay for a direct flight," says Pedro Fiol, president of the Balearic Islands Business Association of Travel Agencies (Aviba).

The three shipping companies The companies that handle freight, passenger, and vehicle traffic in the Balearic Islands (Trasmed, Baleària, and GNV) believe that vehicle restrictions in Mallorca should be implemented "based on rigor, data, and dialogue," according to Baleària's president, Alfonso Utor, who spoke on Thursday after meeting with the Consell de Mallorca (Mallorca Council). He added that the three companies are fully and completely willing to collaborate with the island institution to "find solutions to the island's traffic congestion problems." "We are ready to collaborate with public officials in any way they request," he emphasized.

The governing coalition of the Consell de Mallorca, made up of the PP and Vox parties, is beginning to take steps to fulfill one of its major electoral promises: to allow the hunt on public estates. This Tuesday, the island council conducted a pilot test on the Tossals Verds and Son Fortuny estates with the aim of "evaluating the recovery of hunting activity in these areas," as explained by the council in a statement. The island council assured that "no incidents related to the public use of the estates were detected, and it has been demonstrated that hunting is fully compatible with hiking and other recreational uses." For his part, the vice president of the island council and also the councilor for the Environment, Rural Affairs, and Sports, Pedro Bestard, emphasized that the pilot test "seeks to reintegrate land management with activities that have been part of the rural reality of the estates." He insisted that the initiative "has reflected the successful coexistence between hunting and other recreational uses."