While the Council of Mallorca continues to work on plans to limit vehicles entering the island while Menorca is also planning limits, far-right party Vox has demanded the removal of regulations limiting vehicle entry in Ibiza and Formentera and that they not be applied to the other islands, considering that they limit the right to free movement.
‘It’s absurd, it’s climate big brother and Agenda 2030, which says that if you have a car they like, you can pass, and if not, you pay,’ said Vox spokesperson in Parliament, Manuela Cañadas. She also publicly denounced the ‘bureaucratic hijacking’ to which, in her opinion, the residents of the Balearics are being subjected.
According to the party, current mobility policies, based on vehicle entry quotas and environmental restrictions, are violating the constitutional right to free movement, turning travel between islands ‘into an arbitrary and punitive process for residents’. The spokesperson pointed out that these regulations have created ‘situations of legal defencelessness’, claiming that there have been reports of wage garnishments for fines notified three years late.
‘We, the residents of the Balearic Islands, have become foreigners in our own land. It is unheard of that while our national borders are a sieve, a citizen of the Balearic Islands cannot go to Formentera to see their family with their car because the quota is full or because their vehicle is not electric,’ she stressed.
Furthermore, with islands such as Ibiza cracking down on vehicle numbers on the island and Mallorca trying to agree on how best to limit vehicles entering the island in an attempt to tackle seasonal traffic congestion, there are fears that restrictions could make life for foreign property owners driving to Mallorca complicated and hinder their access to their properties. Not to mention tourists driving over to stay at rural properties.
The tourist rental association believes that the draft law limiting car entry to Mallorca will benefit the hotel sector. Representatives of HABTUR met with the head of Mobility of the Council of Mallorca recently to examine the proposal that aims to restrict the arrival of vehicles. The association claims that its customers will have problems getting to their accommodation, especially in the case of rural properties.
HABTUR manager María Gibert says they will examine the draft, but insists that some of the measures included may end up benefiting the hotel industry. She points out that a hotel can charter a bus for its customers, meaning that visitors do not leave the premises and do not spend money on additional services.