The cancellation of Canamunt and Canavall by Orgull Llonguet, that bar Flexas is not organizing its traditional festival this year, and the controversy between the City Council and Ben Amics over the LGTBI Pride festival seem to mark a specific pattern. The involved collectives denounce a lack of support and generalized interest from the City Council. Is it just a coincidence or is the municipal programming displacing the associative fabric that for decades has given life to Palma's popular festivals?

The mayor of Palma, Jaime Martínez, has defended the municipal management of the LGTBIQ+ Pride events and has assured that the contracting has been carried out in a “escrupolosa” manner, after Ben Amics filed a complaint for possible irregularities in the awarding procedure and criticized the organization model of the festivities. Martínez has placed this weekend's celebrations within normality and has rejected the collective's criticism. “It is very good for Ben Amics to report anything they consider has been done wrong, and I am convinced that the legal services, the technicians, and the political leaders have done it scrupulously, as always,” he stated.

"Pride without LGTBI+ people is not Pride". This is how the technical coordinator of Ben Amics, Jan Gómez, has summarized the feelings of the collective at Sunday's demonstration, after the Palma City Council opted to commercialize the date and hold a party without a reivindicative character. Cort's event on Saturday did not bring together more than 150 people in a Plaça Major that was left empty, while the two protests on Sunday – called by Ben Amics and the platform Orgull Crític Mallorca – gathered almost 3,000 people in the streets of Palma.

Palma will experience an LGTBIQ+ Pride this Sunday marked by fragmentation and open conflict between Ben Amics and the City Council. Two demonstrations will depart from Plaça d'Espanya a few minutes apart and will tour the city center on a day that comes after the breakdown of historic collaboration to organize the Pride celebration.

Ben Amics has celebrated this year in Manacor the delivery of the Siurell and Dimoni Rosa awards, one of the events linked to Pride in the Balearic Islands. The event served to recognize the work of CEIP Sant Jordi, from Palma, in sexual and gender education, and to denounce LGTBI-phobic aggressions, which have received this edition's Dimoni Rosa.

The conflict over the organization of Palma Pride took a step further this Friday and has now reached the courts. Ben Amics has filed a criminal complaint against Palma City Council for alleged irregularities in the hiring of the company responsible for organizing the Pride celebration, and another complaint against the second deputy mayor and councilor for Social Services, Lourdes Roca, whom they accuse of "intimidation and coercion" following statements she made after the entity publicly questioned the procedure.

"Today I want to talk to you about pride. And not about that pride that LGTBI plus and more plus collectives claim to be able to live in freedom without anyone caring about their sex life". This is one of the fragments from the column that Antoni Martorell published on June 20, when his company AgenciaCom had already submitted a bid to the Palma City Council to organize the LGTBIQ+ Pride party.

The Ben Amics association has announced that it will file a judicial and administrative complaint against the Palma City Council for alleged irregularities that, according to the entity, surround the organization of the LGTBIQ+ Pride festival, scheduled for next June 27 in Plaça Major.

The Ombudsman has opened an investigation into the Palma City Council following a complaint filed by Ben Amics, which accuses the Consistory of violating fundamental rights due to the repeated difficulties that, according to the entity, it has placed in organizing the Pride events.

The celebration and claim of the LGTBIQ+ Pride 2026 will be mostly moved to the Part Forana after disagreements between Ben Amics and the Palma City Council, which have led the association to cancel the musical celebration it had been organizing for years. However, the main demonstration will be held on Sunday, June 28 at 7:00 PM in Plaça d’Espanya in Palma. On the other hand, one of the most anticipated events, the delivery of the Siurell and Dimoni Rosa awards, will take place on Saturday the 27th in Manacor, a municipality that has offered to host activities after the controversy in Palma and the breakdown between Ben Amics and the City Council.

The human "pocatraça" has no limits and the Palma City Council is a good example of this. It is enough to listen to a plenary session to confirm that the municipal government does not like groups that are on the margins of what it considers a decent society very much. Cort has not shown much esteem for immigrants, shack dwellers, caravanners, or street artists – at this point, it is worth making a digression: if it is not very, very, very expensive, for the City Council it is not art.

The traditional Flexas festival will not be held this year in Parc de la Mar. After being declared a festival of municipal interest last year, the Palma City Council has withdrawn its support for the organization of the event. The decision comes amid controversy over the LGTBIQ+ Pride celebration and represents a new blow to two of the main spaces linked to the visibility and celebration of queer culture.

Ben Amics will decide in assembly whether to accept the proposal from the Palma City Council on the organization of LGTBI Pride events, in a context marked by the breakdown of the co-organization of the festival, disagreements over deadlines, and a lack of consensus on the planning of the festive and advocacy activities. The collective announced its decision after months of tension with the city council, which culminated in the cancellation of the festival by the entity and the opening of a new negotiation scenario with Cort, which maintains that the events are still being processed and that no planned activity has been suppressed.

The Manacor City Council has formally conveyed to the Ben Amics association its willingness to host the Pride celebration in the municipality, after learning of the cancellation of the festival planned in Palma. The council has followed this situation with concern and believes that, at a time like the present, “drawing back is not an option”. 

Ben Amics has announced the definitive cancellation of the Pride festival in Palma and has blamed the City Council for a situation that, according to the entity, is the consequence of years of administrative inaction, lack of planning, and a sustained process of dismantling municipal LGTBI policies. It is, they assure, "the first time in more than 20 years that the Pride festival has been suspended." "Our festival is cancelled," said Jan Gómez, technical coordinator of the entity. "It is May 4 and the contracts are not yet posted on the contracting profile.

Ben Amics has announced the definitive cancellation of the Pride festival in Palma and has held the City Council responsible for a situation that, according to the entity, is a consequence of years of administrative inaction, lack of planning, and a sustained process of dismantling municipal LGTBI policies. It is, they assure, "the first time in more than 20 years that the Pride festival has been suspended". "Our festival is cancelled", said Jan Gómez, technical coordinator of the entity. "It is May 4th and the contracts are still not posted on the contracting profile".

The Ben Amics association has warned that the celebration of Pride 2026 in Palma is in danger due to the City Council's lack of response to the request for public space occupation for the demonstration and party planned for June 28.