The three main challenges facing the islands are the housing problem, the high cost of living and tourist overcrowding. | Photo: Majorca Daily Bulletin reporter
Humphrey CarterPalma21/10/2026 11:36
The spokesperson for left-wing opposition party Més per Mallorca, Lluís Apesteguia, on Wednesday proposed to the President of the Balearics Government, Marga Prohens, a ten-year plan to reduce the number of tourists arriving in the Balearic Islands to 13 million and to allocate 120 million from the Sustainable Tourism Tax (ITS), tourist tax, to diversifying the economy.
The plan involves raising the ITS to fund the development of other economic sectors and approving airport co-management to regulate arrivals, explained Apesteguia, who asked the President for her support during the General Policy Debate in the Parliament.
He called for support for the agricultural sector, industry and high-quality craftsmanship, the knowledge economy and research – with the Balearic university as the driving force – as well as renewable energy, the audiovisual sector and the care economy.
Apesteguia contrasted “the PP’s model, which views Mallorca as a money-making machine for the few” – and which is increasingly adopting the rhetoric of the far right on which it depends to govern – with that of Més, which conceives of the island “as a place to live, with fewer tourists and a better quality of life”.
For the eco-sovereignist spokesperson, the three main challenges facing the islands are the housing problem – for which what is needed is not more homes but an end to empty flats and property speculation – the high cost of living and tourist overcrowding.
“It has been in power for three and a half years now, and the only thing that matters is whether ordinary people can continue to live here with dignity; for an increasing number of people, the answer is no,” he criticised.
Apesteguia warned that in many villages across Mallorca, more than half of the properties “are not anyone’s main residence; they are second homes, tourist rentals and properties owned by vulture funds that buy up entire buildings”.
“The houses are there, but they’re not for ordinary people,” she said, citing workers living in caravans, several families sharing a house, and young people paying 600 euros for a room. He has put forward a new bill to amend the Town Planning Act and prevent speculation, as well as urgent measures such as capping rents, and has criticised Prohens for announcing that she would allocate ITS land for housing – a move she subsequently reversed – thereby “making a mockery of people if her grand proposal on housing is simply to correct her own mistake”.
The Més coordinator also reproached Prohens for “being the president who has removed protection from the most land in the entire history of the Balearics” and called for a moratorium on new developable land and for the protection of all undeveloped coastline.
Apesteguia has asked Prohens to support his proposals regarding the Balearic Islands Special Regime (REIB) to set a maximum price for petrol on the islands; to increase the tax relief for agricultural, livestock and fishing activities from 10 per cent to 50 per cent on the yield from Balearic products; and for the corporation tax deduction for investments in film productions, TV series, theatre, music and publishing to be 20 percentage points higher than in the rest of Spain, and up to 25 percentage points higher if produced in Catalan. He has also called for support for the pensioners’ Popular Legislative Initiative, aimed at supplementing pensions and ensuring there are no pensioners living in poverty on the islands.