Mallorca, still without having disbursed
With a year and a half left in its term, the Island Council has not given the green light to limiting rental cars, while political and business pressures are growing.
PalmTraffic jams on Palma's ring road, in the Genoa tunnel, and queues on Mallorca's main roads have become a common sight, especially during peak season. "Investing in Mallorca" was one of the major campaign promises of the President of the Council of Mallorca, Llorenç Galmés. Halfway through his term, Galmés proclaimed that his government had fulfilled "more than 80% of its roadmap." But this major campaign promise has yet to be delivered, and the countdown to the next elections has begun.
A key measure to reduce traffic congestion was limiting the number of vehicles entering Mallorca. In the 2025 general policy debate, Galmés asserted that the regulations to control cars already had "the support of transport companies and most car rental associations, among others." He also stated that his draft would be presented on June 13th and expressed his intention to approve it within months.
But the future law remains stalled a year later. The PP is still negotiating with the sectors involved, and after having carried out a load study in 2024—according to which 400,000 cars entered Mallorca in 2023—the Consell has now announced that it will begin counting vehicles with cameras to "conduct a much more detailed load study, with data." In this way, the island institution wants to reassure the rental car sector, which "has requested it."
The question remains open: will the future law be approved and implemented during this term, or will Galmés reach the elections without fulfilling his promise?
Inside a drawer
The opposition in the Consell de Mallorca (Island Council) asserts that Galmés' proposal "will be shelved." There are many factors working against it. The spokesperson for El Pi, Antoni Salas, points out that the load study the Popular Party intends to update "was conducted with relatively meager data and financed through a minor contract," which casts doubt on the document's accuracy. In fact, the president of the car rental association Baleval, Cristóbal Herrera, stated—after meeting with the Island Councilor for Mobility, Fernando Rubio—that the 2024 load study "was based on estimates" he described as "false."
On the other hand, although Galmés does not have the support of Vox, his coalition partner, Salas points out that he could have already passed the legislation in the Consell with the opposition's votes. "Afterwards, the regulations to be approved in the Parliament could be used to finalize a limit on the number of cars and negotiate with the sector."
The Popular Party (PP) could have passed the law in the extraordinary plenary session of February 24. However, the PP abstained because it refused to support the vehicle limitation proposal that the PSIB (Socialist Party of the Balearic Islands) had submitted to the Parliament due to the deadlock on the legislation in the Consell. The Socialists' proposal was the same as Galmés's. The only differences were a reference to the transfer of mobility powers to the Council and the financing of sustainable mobility policies with the ecotax.
Although the Socialists were willing to withdraw the modifications they included in the initiative so that the PP would approve the vehicle restriction, the strategy didn't work. This situation reaffirms Salas's thesis: "There is no intention for the car restriction to go ahead." Why do the Popular Party now want more data and continue with negotiations despite having the support of the left and the elections approaching?
"Someone's pressing the button"
The opposition claims that "someone is pulling strings" to prevent the restriction from being implemented. The PSOE spokesperson in the Council, Catalina Cladera, highlights the pressure Vox is exerting on the president. "I don't think he would have made this announcement if he didn't intend to implement it. Vox has stopped it, and that's part of their governing agreement." The Socialist points out that the pressure from the far right and the PP's change of discourse became evident after the 2026 budget negotiations. "The PP didn't care about Vox until the budget. The negotiations addressed the issue of earmarked subsidies for the Catalan language and also the vehicle restriction because political stability depended on it." Cladera says that the negotiations that have stalled the regulation are an "excuse" to comply with Vox's demands. "As Toni Gili [Vox spokesperson in the Consell] said: 'Others propose, and Vox decides,'" she adds.
There is also pressure from the shipping and car rental sectors, which are demanding more data before implementing a restriction that would impact their revenue. In Ibiza, Baleària filed an appeal to suspend the vehicle limit, but it was recently dismissed.
The island councilor for Mobility, Fernando Rubio, insists that the Consell de Mallorca "will not go against anyone." "A law that doesn't go against anyone is impossible. Someone will have to tighten their belts a bit," warns Cladera. The left emphasizes the public's desire to limit cars in Mallorca as soon as possible and that this has been overshadowed by political and economic interests. "It's all announcements, but nothing is implemented," criticizes Catalina Inès Perelló, spokesperson for MÉS per Mallorca, to the Consell.
The delay in the legislation has reassured the sectors involved, who know that "the parliamentary process the bill would undergo doesn't allow enough time for restrictions to be implemented this summer," as the president of Baleval stated with satisfaction.
What to do to disburse the funds?
Joana Maria Seguí, Professor of Geography at the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB), believes that setting a maximum number of cars in Mallorca "will be a very important element," but warns that it is "just one factor among many." Seguí emphasizes that, in terms of mobility, "if one variable is altered, all the others suffer." Alongside limiting cars, other measures must be considered, such as increasing the importance of public transport, restricting traffic in congested urban areas, and expanding low-emission zones. "We need to manage infrastructure better and stop constantly and gradually building more. The current construction paradigm in a territory as pressured as ours will lead us to build ring roads around Puig Major," she laments.
So far, Galmés' strategy has focused on building new lanes, since the Consell (Island Council) does not have jurisdiction over public transport management. Currently, traffic jams persist, and the campaign promise to bring about a change in the island's mobility remains unfulfilled.
![A road in a bottleneck.](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 977 556"%3E%3C/svg%3E)
In the first year of the vehicle restriction in Ibiza, the island's council set the limit at almost 20,000 cars. "This figure was applied so as not to upset anyone," says Juan Carlos Palermo, president of GEN-GOB, referring to the businesses affected by the measure. This has led residents to experience the same feeling of congestion on the roads. "It hasn't been noticeable. Everything was designed to avoid too much backlash," adds Palermo, who hopes the island institution will lower the maximum vehicle quota in the coming years to further reduce congestion. For now, however, they have proposed reducing the limit by 1,250 vehicles compared to last year's figure.
Although the number of vehicles has been limited, Palermo warns that frequencies must also be increased and public transport connections improved.
Regarding Formentera, the president of GEN-GOB is pleased that the island has the tools to properly implement the vehicle restriction. Cameras in the port read license plates, and online forms clearly indicate to tourists that they must fill them out if they want to avoid fines. In this way, the vehicle restriction "will become established and the number of cars will gradually decrease," Palermo emphasizes.
