The mayor of Palma says that living in the old prison is "a personal decision" and not due to vulnerability

PalmaThe mayor of Palma, Jaime Martínez, considers that living in a building without minimum conditions like the old prison is a "personal decision" and not due to a situation of vulnerability. This is how he responded in an interview on the program Hoy por Hoy from Radio Mallorca (Cadena Ser), when the program's host pointed out that the people residing there have vulnerable profiles. "A personal decision has nothing to do with extreme vulnerability," he assured, visibly annoyed by the journalist's questions. "Vulnerability is assessed, and we function like all administrations, people, society," he added.

According to Martínez, "none of the people occupying the old prison have formally requested any housing or any alternative." The mayor also assured that the residents have rejected the alternatives offered by the Palma City Council and administrations with social services responsibilities. When asked what these alternatives were, Martínez did not specify any and limited himself to stating that the offer was to "initiate the procedure," without clarifying exactly what procedure it was or which administration would carry it out. "The procedure requires certain requirements to be met. What the City Council cannot do is bypass the rules and laws," he reiterated, again without specifying which procedure he was referring to or whether it was the City Council carrying it out or another institution.

"Vulnerability reports are not given away," Martínez continued. "Vulnerability reports are written; there must be a report from professionals with certain standards and laws to comply with to decide if a person is declared vulnerable or not," he commented. "People occupying the old prison cannot override others who do play by the rules in our society," he remarked.

The mayor has announced that he will hold a press conference at the end of next week in which he will talk about the situation after the Palma City Council has given residents five days to leave the property, even though they have nowhere else to live. "I will be able to provide exact figures on the situation, the alternatives, and how many people are in the access control that has been in place for three months.

Otherwise, Martínez has wanted to focus the controversy on the Spanish government's immigration policy and not on the fact that the eviction from the old prison will leave dozens of people on the street. "Almost all [the residents of the old prison] are in an irregular situation in our city. We find ourselves in this situation because there are immigration policies from the Ministry, Pedro Sánchez and company," he stated, in addition to blaming the Platform of People Affected by Mortgages (PAH) and "other political parties" for having advised "very badly" the people who are currently still in the old prison and who filed appeals against the eviction, appeals that Cort has rejected.