Balearic president Francina Armengol. | Miquel À. Cañellas

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President Armengol is insisting that government policies are addressing the problem of access to housing. Responding to questions in parliament from Laura Camargo of Podemos, the president said that the problems which residents of the islands have "suffered" are being alleviated by the government "incentivising owners to switch from holiday rental to residential letting and to be equally profitable".

Camargo was interested to know what measures the government was taking in reducing the number of tourist accommodation places, as established in the tourism law reform last year. The Podemos spokesperson referred to there being more such places in Minorca than are "supposedly" set in the legislation. She considered there to be a "lack of control" of the number of places, adding that there is no up-to-date information regarding places in Ibiza and Formentera.

Armengol explained that Minorca has "always been an exception" in terms of the number of accommodation places, saying that measures have been set in motion and that Podemos data "do not conform to reality".

In Majorca, the president observed that proof of the number of accommodation places being lowered was the fact that over the first six months following the introduction of last summer's reform, a total of 3,620 had been removed.