the times | Tuesday March 15 2022 2GM 35rent to local residents at affordable
prices.
The 2018 local housing law allows the
government to seize homes owned by
large funds or companies, and rent
them out to islanders for prices that
must not exceed 30 per cent of their
income. People who own more than ten
properties are required by law to regis-
ter empty properties with the local
government.
Attempts to intervene in the rental
market in the archipelago’s capital,
Palma de Mallorca, were foiled by the
local Supreme Court last year when it
ruled that a law banning short-term
rentals for tourism in Palma was
“disproportionate and unnecessary”.
In the national parliament, MPs are
debating a law that would cap the rent
that landlords with more than ten prop-
erties can charge in areas considered to
be “under strain”. It would also impose
large fines for having empty properties.Mallorca and the other Balearic islands
have Spain’s most expensive housingTaiwan’s ageing fighters
grounded by crash
Page 36Marine Le Pen said she would
bring seven cats to the Élyséespouse and a dog. “I’m a single woman.
I’m not going to go and buy myself a guy
on Wish [the e-commerce platform]
and shack up with him just because it’s
the done thing to arrive as a couple at
the Élysée,” Le Pen, 53, said. Instead,
she said, she would bring her seven cats
“and their babies” — and the cats
“would not tolerate” living with a dog.
Le Pen’s words may raise eyebrows
among the Catholic hardliners
who have long been a part of
the right-wing National
Rally’s electoral base but
they are in line with her
attempt to pitch for
mainstream voters by
portraying herself as a
moderate in tune with
working families.
The ploy appears to
be working, at least to a
point. An Opinionway poll
published yesterday by Les
Echos, the financial newspaper, sug-gested that Le Pen was on course to
cruise into the second round of the
election with 18 per cent, ahead of Va-
lérie Pécresse, 54, the centre-right Re-
publicans candidate, Éric Zemmour, 63,
the anti-Islam pundit, and Jean-Luc
Mélenchon, 70, of the left-wing France
Unbowed all on 11 per cent.
All the contenders are far behind
President Macron, 44, who is on 30 per
cent. The poll suggested that he
would defeat Le Pen by 58
per cent to 42 per cent in
the second round.
Le Pen, who has
twice been married
and now shares a flat
with a woman, used
her interview with Elle
to pursue her break
with the extremism of
her 93-year-old father,MMMMarine Le
bring seven crdliners
rt of
al
ta
poll
by Les
wspaper, sug-cent. The p
would
per c
thetw
a
w
h
to
wit
hherBritons thinking of buying a holiday
home in Mallorca or Ibiza may soon
find themselves barred as the Balearics
consider limiting property purchases to
prevent local residents from being
priced out.
The islands’ parliament has voted to
study the legal implications of capping
sales of property to foreigners. Eduardo
Robsy, director-general of the housing
ministry, acknowledged that members
of the European Union would probably
be protected under EU law. However,
he said there were possibilities for
limiting sales to Britons.
Almost a third of property purchases
on the Spanish archipelago last year
were by foreigners. Buyers from the UK
were outnumbered only by Germans in
the foreign market in Mallorca,
accounting for 3.5 per cent of all proper-
ties sold, according to the College of
Property Registrars.
Over the past two decades foreign
buyers’ focus has moved from the
luxury market to cheaper apartments,
pushing up prices and reducing options
for islanders.
As Spain begins to emerge from the
pandemic, the Balearics are
experiencing Spain’s fastest rise in
property prices.
Josep Castells, a spokesman for More
for Menorca, part of the ruling coalition
in the Balearics, said he aimed to clamp
down on second homes rather than on
foreign buyers. “There are too many
second homes that perpetuate the
problems of access to a first home in the
Balearic Islands,” he told El Diario.
Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza and
Formentera’s popularity with tourists
has been pushing out islanders. The
Balearics have the least affordable
property market in Spain — a resident
would need to save up 16.6 times their
annual salary for a deposit compared
with a national average of 7.8 times.
The local government announced
this month that it would expropriate
56 homes in Menorca that it planned toForeigners could be
barred from buying
up the Balearics
A piece of paradise
500
01,0001,5002,0002012 2014 2016 2018 2020
Source: Spain’s College of RegistrarsMore than 2,000 homes worth €500,000 or
more were sold to foreign buyers in 2021
2,157Spain
Charlie Devereux MadridD
ressed in a
hoodie bearing
the logo of an
elite parachute
unit, with his
head in his hands and
stubble on his chin, recent
photos of President
Macron at work in the
Élysée bear an uncanny
resemblance to wartimeleaders — but his critics
are not convinced by the
image being portrayed
(Adam Sage writes).
“The Zelensky effect,”
tweeted Raphael Grably, a
reporter with BFM, the
rolling news channel, in
response to the series of
photos taken on Sunday
and published online bySoazig de la
Moissonnière, 40, the
president’s official
photographer. Since
Russia invaded Ukraine,
President Zelensky has
ditched his suits for
simple khaki hoodies and
T-shirts.
In another set of photos
Macron, who is seekingre-election next month, is
staring at the ground; in
one he has his eyes closed
and is rubbing his
troubled brow — not
unlike the images
released of President
John F Kennedy during a
tense telephone call with
President Khrushchev of
the USSR in 1961.Jean-Marie, the party’s founder. He was
always of the opinion that women
should devote themselves to “repro-
duction” and to “the full-time educa-
tion of their children”; she said that she
had ditched the party’s hostility to
abortion. She would keep a recent re-
form opening IVF treatment for single
and gay women and was in favour of
free contraception for all, she added.
Le Pen said it was time for a female
leader because “we are passionate,
interested in concrete [solutions]. Men
live with illusions that women often
cannot allow themselves to have.”
Like Zemmour and Mélenchon, Le
Pen has been thrown on to the defen-
sive by the war in Ukraine, given her
efforts to court President Putin. Unlike
them, she appears to have escaped elec-
toral damage with a swift U-turn: she
said the invasion was “unpardonable”
and she had “no liking” for Putin but
called for improved relations between
Europe and Russia.Vote for me, I’ve got a telly
When Sashmita Khera ran for office in
state elections last month she did so
lugging a huge television around in her
arms. Not because she needed to keep
up with the news, but to mark herself
out as an “aspirational” candidate.
“A TV is a sought-after item in every
household,” she said as she canvassed
villages in Odisha state. “Voters across
all generations can relate to it. This is
why I chose the symbol and to register
it. I decided to campaign around carry-
ing a TV set rather than just asking for
votes and sharing pamphlets.”
Khera is not an outlier in Indian elec-
tions. A hundred miles up the road,
Bhagavati Bhotra carried a fish, fresh
every day, as she went door to doorlooking for votes. “Every morning I get
the best fish from the market and start
my campaign. This way people will
remember me,” she said.
Although the trend may seem un-
usual to western eyes, it has for decades
been one of the most effective ways to
campaign in India’s poorly educated
rural areas.
Given that many voters have difficul-
ty reading, they recognise their pre-
ferred candidate by a symbol, also next
to their name on the ballot paper.
When 200 million Indians voted in
five state elections, the array of party
symbols also included a kite, an
umbrella, a cauliflower and a bucket.
The symbol has to be easily identifiable.
Decades ago, parties would choose a
bullock cart or tractor. These days, it is
more likely to be a laptop or sofa.India
Amrit Dhillon DelhiSOAZIG DE LA MOISSONNIERE/PRESIDENCE DE LA REPUBLIQUE; THE ESTATE OF JACQUES LOWE