Citizens of Mallorca took to the streets of Palma this Sunday afternoon to protest for the third consecutive year against the tourist overcrowding suffered by the inhabitants of an archipelago that in 2025 broke its own visitor record with the arrival of 18.9 million visitors. Some 25,000 people, according to the National Police, marched through the center of the Balearic capital, supporting the call of the platform Menys Turisme, Més Vida (Less Tourism, More Life), which estimates the attendance at 70,000.
This entity comprises 60 social, trade union, and environmental groups from the islands. It denounces the situation of saturation suffered by infrastructures and services, which worsens the quality of life for residents. The march, joined by around 135 entities, was led by a banner displaying this edition’s slogan: “Mallorca al límit” (Mallorca at the limit).
This year’s call has been surrounded by controversy. First, due to the publication of a manual by the organizers urging actions against touristification, in the form of graffiti on facades or blocking locks in tourist businesses. Second, due to the arrest and judicial referral of two activists, accused by the Civil Guard of belonging to a criminal group, for vandalizing the shop windows of five real estate agencies.
The demonstration follows in the wake of the first major gathering organized in July 2024, also in the middle of high season and promoted by the same platform. Two years after that first major gathering, which brought together more than 20,000 people, the demands of those who have taken to the streets are practically the same: to stop gentrification and the expulsion of lifelong residents from their neighborhoods, to curb water consumption, and to protect natural areas, among others.
“I decided to come out because of the emergency we have when it comes to buying a house, the overcrowding, and how everything is going up in price,” says Daniel Camargo, 23, who attended the demonstration with a friend to also denounce that young Mallorcans cannot compete against Northern Europeans when it comes to accessing housing. In a festive atmosphere, the demonstration started from Palma’s Plaza de España, crossing the city’s main arteries, such as La Rambla and Paseo del Borne, until reaching the Ses Voltes area, next to the cathedral. Signs with slogans such as “Mallorca is not for sale,” “I don’t recognize my land,” or “Mallorca is not for rent” were abundant, with numerous references to the housing crisis suffered by the archipelago.
Dani Comas, spokesperson for the organizing platform, pointed out that the initiative aims to denounce the “tourist monoculture” in the year prior to regional elections and in a summer where all tourist records are likely to be broken again. “On August 12, the island, roads, and access to our towns and cities will be completely collapsed with the highest index of human pressure; the fight does not end here,” he stressed, announcing that a new demonstration has been called for August 8 in Sóller, one of the municipalities most affected by overcrowding.
Families, young people, and also elderly people who confessed to being sad about the future awaiting their grandchildren waited for the start of the march with banners. “We are ruined, they have screwed everything up for us, they have screwed up our houses, not work, but everything is completely overexploited, there are many rental cars, many people come,” lamented Felip Esteve, 69, who came to the event from Cala Ratjada. From Bunyola, with a group of friends, was Lluís Escandell, 26, who demands a change in the tourism model and the defense of Mallorcans’ rights to access housing and build a future in their homeland. The demands regarding access to housing, which were very widespread, shared prominence with others related to water consumption, the import of waste from Ibiza to Mallorca, the destruction of heritage, the preservation of natural spaces, or the expansion of airports. A group of tractors also joined the march to demand support for the primary sector.
The tourist capacity of the Balearic Islands still seems to know no limits, as last year a new visitor record was broken, approaching 19 million tourists in an archipelago where 1.2 million people live spread across four islands. The debate on the tourism model and overcrowding has been on the administrations’ table for years, and they have adopted measures to try to limit its impact: from restrictions on accessing the islands by private car, to the prohibition of tourist flats, or the regulation of the number of cruises in the port of Palma. Measures that have not appeased the growing social unrest, which is aggravated by the enormous difficulties in accessing housing, whether for rent or purchase.
The government of the popular Marga Prohens has not managed to calm citizen spirits, and the Social and Political Pact for Sustainability table, a social and business debate forum that was intended to be the body where consensual decisions on the future of tourism in the Balearic Islands would be agreed upon, has been unable to adopt significant measures to curb saturation. In fact, in recent months there has been a long trickle of withdrawals by participating entities from these meetings, considering that the Prohens government is using this body as a shield to avoid making decisions that impact the future of the sector. The president declared this week that she understood part of the citizen discontent with the situation but blamed the left-wing parties that governed before her for not having addressed the issue.
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