Royal portrait puts illegal homes amnesty in danger

On the 9th of July, in a fiercely fought battle, the government of the Balearic Isles voted in a landmark amnesty for 20,000 illegal homes across the islands.

A landmark amnesty for 20,000 illegal homes across the Balearic islands could be overturned because the government’s voting chamber where the motion was passed had the portrait of the former King, Juan Carlos, on the wall and not of the newly crowned King Felipe VI.

The amnesty was forced through despite bitter opposition from national government and ecologist groups, but since then they have potentially spotted a loophole and an appeal has been lodged to have the Constitutional Court overturn the result of the vote in favour of the amnesty.

Several days before the vote, King Felipe had ascended to the Spanish throne and a new national law required that all courts, schools, parliaments and places of official business were to display the offical portrait of the new King.

Unfortunately the Balearic Islands had not received their copy of the official order and were therefore still displaying the official portrait of King Juan Carlos which could be enough, according to constitutional experts, to have all votes cast in the chamber annulled, and this would in turn mean that the amnesty would not be upheld.

However, the President of the Council of Mallorca, María Salom, may have been able to avoid the potential overturn by replacing a family portrait that she kept on her desk with a picture of the new King that she found on Google.

Her quick thinking may be enough to stop the appeal going through, but if it does go through, 20,000 homes may be in danger purely because the wrong picture was on the wall of the voting chamber.