Indignation in Port d'Andratx: a millionaire foreigner closes one of the few accesses to the sea

PalmaThe residents of Port d’Andratx are fed up with finding more and more obstacles to reach the sea. The closure of one of the traditional accesses to the Sant Carles path, in the direction of La Mola, by a foreign millionaire who owns a mansion there, has once again ignited the discontent among residents, who denounce a progressive "privatization" of the paths leading to the coast. For this Saturday, August 29, they have called a neighborhood meeting to demand that the passage located between numbers 22 and 24 of the street be recovered.

The call, under the slogan 'We defend public access to the sea', proposes an informative meeting at 11:00 a.m. on the Sant Carles path itself, followed by an exchange of opinions and proposals, a popular picnic, and a swim in the area located at the end of the blocked access. "The more of us there are, the stronger our request will be," say the organizers.

The conflict is not new. In fact, the Andratx City Council itself addressed the case in the plenary session of September 2024 following a motion by MÉS per Andratx to recover or open access to the sea from number 24 of Camí de Sant Carles. In that session, the municipal group denounced that a barrier had been installed at the site with a sign warning of "private property", another indicating that there was an alarm and a surveillance camera. It also stated that the passage had been open for years and that the residents of El Port had traditionally used it to reach the sea.

The issue generated a discussion about the nature of the passage. According to the municipal minutes, the government team maintained that the access was not public and had never been, while the promoters of the motion argued that the neighbors had seen it open "all their lives" and provided documentation and images that, they claimed, showed that it had been accessible until shortly before. The motion to recover the passage was rejected by the plenary: it received six votes in favor, ten against, and one abstention.

Now, almost two years later, residents are once again putting the conflict on the table. And with a demand that goes beyond this specific point: that it be guaranteed that traditional access to the coast does not disappear as luxury properties occupy the areas closest to the sea.

A barrier, a camera, and a mansion

The case that has motivated the new mobilization is, according to the organizers of the meeting, particularly paradigmatic. The passage located between numbers 22 and 24 of Camí de Sant Carles would have been closed after the arrival of a foreign owner with great fortune. Residents denounce that, in addition to the barrier, video surveillance systems have been installed. The image accompanying the call shows the narrow passage between the two properties, currently blocked, which leads towards the coast. For the residents, the problem is that an area that for decades had functioned as a passage to the sea and a bathing area for many Majorcans has been incorporated de facto to the private space of properties built on the coastline.

The unrest is part of a broader concern among Port residents: that it is becoming increasingly difficult to access certain coves and points along the coast, as the large houses built on the coast, with walls, barriers, and security systems (not always legal), end up making traditional access routes disappear. In fact, the resident of the mansion in question had oriented the cameras towards the street, an act that violates regulations regarding image rights. Following a complaint, he moved them to face exclusively towards the path.

The municipal inventory of assets and rights of Andratx includes a specific section on access to the sea, within which is listed the "Access to the sea – Sant Carles path, s/n", along with other accesses in the municipality. This data is one of the elements that residents consider needs to be clarified. The debate does not consist solely in determining whether a specific barrier can be maintained or not, but in establishing the legal nature of each passage and ensuring that those that are public or protected by some right of access are maintained. Because one thing is clear: reaching the sea on foot in Port d'Andratx to swim has been an odyssey for years. There are few swimming spots.

A step with history

In the 2024 plenary session, MÉS per Andratx reported that along passage number 24 "everyone passed, locals and non-locals, mainly, but also foreigners". The group denounced that the closure generated indignation among residents who had used that access for years. The group also called on the City Council to review what had happened during the processing of the subsidiary regulations and, if necessary, to promote a specific modification to recover the passage. The proposal also included urging the Directorate General of Coasts to restore to its natural state an area where, according to the motion, a "solarium" had been installed near the descent to the sea. Two years later, residents consider that the problem remains without a satisfactory solution. The new meeting aims to regain citizen pressure and demand that administrations review the accesses that have been closed.

The protest also has a symbolic dimension. Port d'Andratx is one of the points in Mallorca where real estate pressure has most profoundly transformed the coastline. Large properties occupy the slopes surrounding the Port, and residents warn that this residential privatization also has consequences on the use of the coast. For the organizers of the meeting, what cannot be allowed is for the purchasing power of owners to determine how far citizens can go.

The neighbors are clear that they do not want to resign themselves to seeing traditional paths to the sea disappear one after another. This Saturday, at 11:00 AM, they will meet at the same road, Sant Carles 22-24. The proposal is deliberately neighborly: to inform themselves, share opinions, demand the opening of the passage, and end with a dip in the cove located at the end of the closed access. A way to remember, in the midst of one of the most exclusive areas of the Balearic Islands, that reaching the sea is also a matter of public space and, especially, a right.