The PP on the social housing in Son Bordoy in 2010: "it will cause saturation and create a ghetto"

Palm"Saturation," "a ghetto of social housing," and serious harm to the residents of El Molinar. These are some of the terms the People's Party (PP) used 16 years ago against the same Son Bordoy project that it is now processing as the municipal government. Back in 2010, under the auspices of the well-known Carbonero Law (named after the Housing Minister in Francesc Antich's government), a strategic land reserve was being processed in Son Bordoy with the stated objective of facilitating affordable housing. On paper, the initiative aimed to address the difficulty of accessing housing in Palma. Civil society and the People's Party criticized this land rezoning for several reasons. The PP was very harsh and used arguments that were the exact opposite of those they are now defending.

In the objections the People's Party (PP) presented to the Son Bordoy urbanization project, as stated in an official document that includes all the relevant documentation, the PP warned that "the increase in the area's building potential, from the 225 homes planned in the current zoning regulations to 750, will worsen the situation in La Palma." Furthermore, the PP argued that the population increase would lead to "a significant shortage of facilities, especially social services, leaving the local population completely neglected."

Another issue the Popular Party highlighted at the time was their deep concern about concentrating too many people in a small area. They pointed out, quite literally, that the Son Bordoy development would cause "saturation" of the surrounding areas of El Molinar, which, in their view, were already "damaged by the municipal policies" being implemented at the time. Furthermore, they believed that the project's development "could create ghettos of social housing" that "promote exclusion." "The model of concentrating social housing has proven its failure over all these years, so the current trend in urban planning is to dismantle clusters of this type of housing and relocate the residents to buildings that facilitate their integration into society," they asserted. Moreover, the Popular Party criticized the fact that the residents of Son Bordoy would suffer a significant reduction in the area's green spaces.

Criticism from many quarters

From the outset, civil society reacted strongly against the rezoning of Son Bordoy. Environmental groups like GOB denounced the land reservation as a massive urbanization of a peri-urban area, with a density far exceeding that initially planned. They warned that, under the guise of public housing, lay a scheme that would multiply land values ​​and open the door to hundreds of privately owned apartments. Neighborhood associations and social groups also questioned the prioritization of building new land instead of mobilizing vacant or dilapidated housing within the city.

One of the reasons for public outrage was the fact that this urban development project was essentially a pilot program, reclassifying rural land as urban, with the corresponding multimillion-euro profits. At the heart of the operation was the Mallorcan developer Martí Gual, through his companies, who undertook the development of the land with financial backing from Sa Nostra, the Balearic savings bank that ultimately went bankrupt. The relationship between Gual and the bank came under judicial scrutiny. The Public Prosecutor's Office and experts from the Bank of Spain concluded that the financial institution had maintained inflated valuations of the land and avoided recognizing losses, which would have contributed to the financial shortfall that ultimately brought down Sa Nostra. In this context, Martí Gual was investigated for the management of the funds received and for the true destination of the money.

Dobleros towards Switzerland

Investigators discovered that some of the money from Sa Nostra was not being directly allocated to the Son Bordoy project. During the legal proceedings and in various media reports, Gual's name surfaced in connection with Swiss bank accounts, specifically the well-known Falciani list, which included holders of undeclared accounts abroad. Although this information did not ultimately result in a final criminal conviction, it did reinforce the idea that the flow of capital had deviated from the intended channels and that the control over the funds had been, at the very least, deficient. The case reached the National Court as part of the larger investigation into the management of Sa Nostra. Ultimately, the court acquitted the former executives of the savings bank, ruling that the existence of a crime could not be proven, despite acknowledging a high and highly questionable level of risk in its management practices. This ruling closed the legal chapter, but not the political or social debate, which continues to this day.

Son Bordoy is considered a textbook example of urban planning, but the crisis in the sector during the years the project was underway, along with public criticism, brought it to a standstill. The developer's personal fate was tragic. Martí Gual committed suicide in December 2019, before all legal cases could be definitively closed and with his companies bankrupt. His death brought a dramatic end to a story marked by debt, legal pressure, and the collapse of a model based on unlimited real estate growth.

Today, Son Bordoy remains an uncomfortable symbol: under the pretext of housing needs, rural land was rezoned to allow for the construction of 500 subsidized housing units and 250 market-rate units. Now, 16 years later, the People's Party (PP), which had previously called the project outrageous because it would overcrowd the area and because it didn't believe in large-scale social housing developments, is now arguing that the project is essential and is promoting the eviction of Roma families who have witnessed the project's twists and turns for years.