The left-wing MÉS per Palma party intends to propose limiting the number of cruise ships in Palma to two per day with a maximum of 6,000 passengers, thus reducing the current figures by half.
The party will present initiatives to both in the City Council and in the Congress of Deputies, led by Sumar Més deputy Vicenç Vidal, according to a press release from MÉS.
The eco-sovereignists seek to ‘free the people of Palma from half of the cruise ships that saturate the streets’. According to the councillor of MÉS per Palma, Miquel Àngel Contreras, any resident of the centre of Palma ‘knows perfectly well that on cruise days they have to avoid driving through the streets of their own neighbourhood’.
He pointed out that during the May bank holiday weekend, more than 60,000 cruise passengers disembarked in Palma, which is ten times more than the maximum number proposed by MÉS. ‘It is also three times the population of the historic centre and twice that of Pere Garau, the city’s most populated neighbourhood,’ he added. The party warned that this situation is not a one-off, as 551 cruise ships and 1.8 million passengers are expected to arrive in Palma in 2025, according to the Balearic Port Authority, a total of 47 cruise ships and 41,085 passengers more than in 2024.
For this reason, MÉS will request in the next council plenary session that a maximum of two cruise ships and 6,000 passengers arrive in the city each day. With this model, there would be 876,000 annual visitors, ‘less than half of what the PP allows’. In their opinion, this measure would guarantee a balance between tourist activity and the quality of life of the people who live in Palma throughout the year.
The Sumar Més MP will present a non-legislative proposal (PNL) in Congress to legally establish these limits. As he pointed out, in Madrid ‘they need to know the situation that the residents of Palma suffer day after day due to the inaction of the PP’. ‘Palma cannot continue to be a stage for a business that does not benefit the citizens. With MÉS there will be limits, there will be coexistence, there will be a city,’ he said.
According to MÉS, traditional businesses are disappearing, public spaces are becoming congested and residents are being driven out of their neighbourhoods because of cruise ships. They also criticised the minimal benefits, as cruise passengers spend only 30 euros a day, according to the Balearic Islands Institute of Statistics (Ibestat).
‘The mayor, Jaime Martínez, does not govern for the people, he governs for those who make money at the expense of all of us. This saturation is not accidental, it is his model,’ Contreras concluded. Més per Mallorca is a Majorcan political party and coalition formed by the Socialist Party of Majorca, IniciativaVerds (IV) and Entesa per Mallorca, as well as other small local parties around the island. It was established in 2010 by the PSM, Left Initiative and The Greens under the name PSM–Iniciativa–Verds