The GOB still awaits Prohens' response to the meeting request of July 27
The environmental organization claims to the Government that it listen to the outcry of the 70,000 people who took to the streets on 26-J
PalmaThree weeks, this is the time that has passed since GOB requested a meeting with the President of the Government, Marga Prohens, and the President of the Council of Mallorca, Llorenç Galmés, to know if they are willing to listen to the outcry of the 70,000 people who, according to the organizers' figures, demonstrated in Palma on July 26th against the perverse effects of saturation and touristification on the lives of residents. The meeting was requested just one day later, on July 27th, but the Executive has ignored the environmental organization's request. "We have not received a single response," assure GOB sources.
For their part, Executive sources point out that "the entity will be contacted shortly" to schedule a meeting, and recall that the environmentalists met on July 13 with the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Natural Environment, Joan Simonet, who went to try to appease spirits after the mobilization in defense of Trenc, which gathered nearly 10,000 people. Simonet then assured that "not a single square meter" of the Trenc-Salobrar de Campos Natural Park would be unprotected. However, the July 26 protest exceeded all expectations and showed that discontent against saturation is transversal and goes beyond political affiliation.
For his part, the Minister of Tourism, Jaume Bauzà, justified the lack of response from the Government, on August 5, assuring that "schedules are complicated". But, beyond setting a date, the GOB has not received any communication from the Government. Bauzà defended the Executive's "tourism containment" policy and assured that he has "total respect for the demands of the GOB and Terraferida", even though the request for a meeting was ignored.
The GOB and Terraferida have presented five concrete measures to "begin to reduce the pressure" on the territory and residents: that tourist rentals be ended; that the urbanization of rural land be stopped; that policies of territorial deregulation be ended; that vehicles that can circulate on Mallorca be limited; and a comprehensive strategy for adaptation and mitigation of climate change.
The latest protest against the current situation of saturation and overpopulation in the Balearic Islands took place on August 15 in Ciutadella, where more than 800 people occupied the Cathedral square for an outdoor dinner organized by the Via Menorca platform. A week earlier, about 2,500 people demonstrated in Sóller, a municipality that currently symbolizes the consequences of overpopulation in the Balearic Islands.