Palma, May 18 (EFE).- The Mallorcans, Menorcans and Ibizans, in addition to voting on May 28 for their regional councilors and deputies, will elect in a third ballot box the components of the island consells (councils), a level of the exclusive administration of the islands.
The island councils are institutions specific to each of the islands that exercise the government, administration and representation of Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera. They are also institutions of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands and, as such, have regulatory and executive powers.
In communities with several provinces, provincial deputies are indirectly elected by citizens in municipal elections. Unlike these institutions, the election of the members of the island councils of Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza is direct.
In the case of the Consell de Formentera, an island with a single municipality, the voting process is unique, since the insular entity is also the town hall, although for legal purposes it has the same consideration as the councils of the rest of the islands.
Specifically, the Majorcans will elect on May 28 the 33 councilors who will make up the plenary of their Council, which was chaired by the socialist Catalina Cladera in the last legislature at the head of a coalition government with Unidas Podemos and More for Mallorca. Cladera aspires to revalidate the presidency in the next elections.
The Menorcans will appoint 13 new ministers and will decide if the socialist Susana Mora continues as the head of the institution on the island for the next four years. Also in Menorca, a left-wing coalition has governed since 2019.
In the last elections, the PP could only assume the presidency of one of the island councils, that of Ibiza, with Vicent Marí at the helm, where the party kept the six representatives it already had and added one more from Ciudadanos, thus breaking the majority that the left held in the previous legislature.
In Formentera, which until 2007 “shared” the island council with Ibiza, the left has governed ever since. The 17 councilors that make up its plenary session are at the same time councilors and are elected every four years, coinciding with the municipal elections.
Although the island councils have a wide variety of powers, from heritage and roads to the protection of minors, their political and strategic weight is mainly due to the management of social services, tourism and urban planning.