On Tuesday, the Council of Mallorca reported that an unlicensed Airbnb holiday apartment in Palma had been removed from the website. This apartment was one that the main opposition party in the Balearics, PSOE, had highlighted. More than just highlighted, they had rented it.
PSOE spokesperson in the Balearic Parliament, former tourism minister Iago Negueruela, said this had been done in order to denounce to the media the continuing existence of illegal supply of holiday lets. The Council of Mallorca had come to an agreement with Airbnb for the removal of all unlicensed properties.
Further context was the announcement by the Partido Popular mayor of Palma, Jaime Martínez, that there will be no more tourist licences for houses (as well as apartments) in the city; this was confirmed by the mayor on Tuesday. Negueruela, it might be noted, is PSOE's likely candidate to challenge Martínez at the 2027 election.
Negueruela explained that his party had wanted to denounce the illegal supply first-hand in order to show that the main problem in the Balearic Islands is access to housing. This was an apartment "that should be for the workers of this city". "PSOE will report any illegalities. As we have seen with the island council, they have not yet closed any apartments, even though they said they would."
In parliament on Tuesday, President Prohens described the PSOE action as "a performance, a show". She went on to attack the previous PSOE-led government for having allowed illegal rentals "to spread like wildfire".
The Council of Mallorca said Negueruela had been "irresponsible". A statement read: "We want to make it clear that we have never said that illegal rentals have been eliminated. They have been reduced with the removal of more than 4,400 listings. If they (PSOE) were citizens serving society, they would fulfil their obligation to report these matters to the appropriate authorities, not by staging a media spectacle: there’s no need to pay an illegal individual 160 euros."