Your seven days news round-up in Mallorca

The president of one of Mallorca's taxi driver associations, Biel Moragues, was asked last weekend about how things are this summer. He responded to this but gave very much more than might have been expected. "Public transport cannot meet the demand we have, just as the road network, water consumption and housing cannot." "Everything is out of control", and he wasn't just referring to transport.

Taxi drivers know much about what goes on. They are eyes and ears with a knowledge beyond that of knowing where streets, roads or buildings are. And part of this knowledge concerns illegal lets. "We know full well about these lets in Palma." An example he gave was C. Joan Alcover. The taxis get calls from tourists on this street. "There are no hotels there."

The observations of Biel Moragues struck a raw nerve. Housing and holiday let comments may have been unexpected, but those to do with traffic and transport obviously would have been. The current tourism model doesn't allow adequate traffic regulation. He wasn't making a special plea for taxis as he said that more Uber or more taxis weren't a solution, and he attacked the car-hire sector, Othman Ktiri of OK Mobility in particular. "That guy says, if necessary, he'll bring all the hire cars needed. Yes, another way of increasing the traffic jams that tourists and residents suffer."

Land transport, a prime concern

Land transport, and so trains and the metro as well as buses, coaches, taxis and VTC vehicles (e.g. Uber), has attracted more contributions than any other of the twelve areas being considered by the government's social and political pact for sustainability. Set up in response to overtourism concerns, the pact process involves twelve working parties, whose deliberations are mirrored by a website to which the public can make contributions.

The working parties, obliged to take note of what citizens are saying on the website, are progressing very slowly. Two of them haven't even met yet. The government says there will be an intensification and acceleration in September (once holiday August is out the way), but there is much scepticism.

Sustainability and empty homes

While land transport has attracted the greatest response, social sustainability ranks fourth. Housing is an element of social sustainability - its 'physical resources' - and is at the centre of protests in Mallorca.

An aspect of housing on the island and in the Balearics in general which can be overlooked concerns the number of empty homes and those for which usage is only sporadic. A report this week pointing to 210,587 homes empty in the Balearics, roughly a third of all dwellings, didn't actually provide new information, as the National Statistics Institute had presented the figures in November last year. Even so, this is an issue that authorities have been aware of for many a year, but empty homes on the islands have never benefited from there being a 'tsar' or a champion to try and get to grips with them.

Social housing v. demolition

Given the problems with housing, a question many ask when there are demolition plans is why buildings can't be preserved and used, perhaps even as social housing. When these buildings are perfectly habitable apartments, the question can seem particularly pertinent. Andratx town hall is finally about to execute the 2013 court order to demolish twelve apartments in Cala Llamp. The mayor, Estefanía Gonzalvo, said on Tuesday that the contract for demolition, a cost to the town hall of 275,000 euros, had been signed and that work is due to start at the end of September.

The point is that these apartments were built illegally. A licence was issued in 2005 by the then mayor for building on land not classified for development. Eugenio Hidalgo was arrested in 2006. There was corruption and there were illegal licences. The land should never have been built on, but were it now be reclassified for development, purchasers of the apartments and the developer would have rightful claim to the properties.

Targeting hotel chains

The latest protests of a tourism nature were in Manacor last Sunday. The anti-capitalist group Caterva carried out another stunt. This involved 'closing' beaches. What they did was to close the accesses to several of Manacor's coves. Symbolic gestures, the police soon reopened the accesses, one of which was at Cala Varques, representative of tourist saturation for several years. Last summer, Caterva put up posters at beaches warning that there were dangers for swimmers, but not if they were Catalan speakers.

The group insisted that tourists are not to blame, the main culprits being the owners of hotel chains, construction companies and real-estate firms. Unrelated to events on Sunday, the headquarters of a hotel chain up the coast from Manacor in Cala Millor (probably Hipotels, though this wasn't stated) suffered a break-in last weekend. Two safes were forced open; cash and jewellery were stolen. The Guardia Civil suspected that the robbers were from an Albanian gang that specialises in such break-ins and that there was a 'mole' who had provided information about the safes.

Summer sickness

In Puerto Soller there was beach closure of the genuine type. Can Generós beach was red-flagged for four days and the sea was taped off by the police. Contamination had been detected. It was believed that this was related to the storms a fortnight ago, when a torrent overflowed and caused flooding. Some of the waste ended up at the beach. If this was the cause, a question might be why it took a week for it to first be detected.

Water contamination wasn't mentioned by unions as a reason for summer sick leave. The two main unions, CCOO and UGT, have reported increased absenteeism this summer, more so than in 2023 when it was already problematic. They attribute this to work overload and high temperatures, there having been three heat waves this summer, as there were last year.

There is an imbalance between the size of workforces and the volume of work. This is one cause of sick leave. Thermal stress is another. The unions intend introducing clauses to ensure greater protection against thermal stress in the next round of collective bargaining negotiations. They admit, however, that simply stopping work during the hottest hours of the day can't be generally applicable because of the nature of work and the demand for service - hospitality is a case in point. Nevertheless, they believe there can be "preventive measures".

Tourism protests, the fightback

Returning to the protests, the distributors association is leading the fightback. Suppliers to bars, hotels and others, the association has launched a campaign with the slogan 'We love tourism'. Stating that it is well aware of social problems that exist in Mallorca, the association nevertheless insists there is nothing to be gained other than tension by actions that insult tourists. It asks the protesters if there is anyone from their families or close circles of friends who doesn't make a living directly or indirectly from tourism and reminds them of the 'SOS Turismo' slogan during the pandemic.

Controlling recreational boats

Beaches, when they are not closed for whatever reason, can get very crowded. And if we hadn't realised this, there have been protesters to highlight the fact. Looking out from some beaches, it can appear as if the sea is equally saturated. In this regard, the Balearic government has announced that it will be constituting a board with the nautical sector so that there is sustainable development of recreational boating.

An aspect of this will be safety, the announcement having followed the fatal incident off Cala Bona when a yacht travelling at high speed hit an unlit fishing boat. The president of the association of maritime activity businesses, José María Jiménez, said that it was "an aberration" that some boats are being handled without a licence. There needs to be "common sense", he emphasised, other representatives from the sector having observed that the responsible declaration for activities needs to be stricter and that there must be "appropriate behaviour" at the controls of a recreational boat.