Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

NATIONAL DAY

Catalans march for unity on Spain’s national day

Tens of thousands of Catalans who want their region to remain part of Spain marked national day Friday, marching through Barcelona in protest against leaders who brought the region to the brink of independence last year.

Published: 12 October 2018 16:57 CEST
Catalans march for unity on Spain's national day
People wave Spanish flags during an anti-separatist demonstration for the unity of Spain marking the Spanish National Day in Barcelona. All photos: AFP

Waving both Spanish and Catalan flags and cheering Spain's king, the demonstrators made their way along the elegant Passeig de Gracia, home to some of the city's most luxurious hotels, to the central Placa de Catalunya square.   

GALLERY: Best images from Spain's National Day military parade

Organisers said some 300,000 people took part in the demonstration. Municipal police put turnout at 65,000 people.   

“It is not so much about asserting of feelings of being Spanish. We came to demand unity, the unity of Spain and Catalan society which is more and more divided,” Cristian Rodriguez, a 21-year-old student, told AFP.

Polls and recent elections show the Catalonia's 7.5 million residents are roughly equally divided by the secession question.   

While supporters of independence have staged massive rallies in recent years, those who want the wealthy northeastern region to remain a part of Spain have remained largely silent.

But that changed after Catalonia's regional government in October 2017 pressed ahead with a banned referendum on secession and the regional parliament then declared the region's independence to no effect.

Spain's central government responded by sacking the region's government, led at the time by Carles Puigdemont, dissolving its parliament and calling early regional elections.

Sixteen Catalan separatist leaders, including Puigdemont who is in self-imposed exile in Belgium, are facing trial over their role in the separatist push. The trial is expected to start in early 2019.

“I ask that the judges who will have to issue sentences soon not be intimidated,” said Javier Megino, the vice president of the group which organised the demonstration, “Spain and Catalonia”, in an address to the crowd.

“Puigdemont to prison,” the crowd chanted in response.   

Puigdemont was replaced by Quim Torra as Catalonia president following snap polls in the region in December 2017 which saw separatist parties once again in an absolute majority in the regional parliament.

Torra's government is divided between those who back disobedience to advance the cause of independence and those who favour dialogue with new Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.

In power since June, Sanchez has taken a softer line on Catalonia then his conservative predecessor — a stance which many at the demonstration criticised.

Esther, a 63-year-old pensioner who declined to give her last name, said the central government was making concessions to the Catalan government which was “giving wings to the separatists”.

October 12th is known as Dia de la Hispanidad, or Hispanic Day, and celebrates Christopher Columbus' arrival in the New World. The day was declared Spain's national day in 1987.

READ MORE: How Spain celebrates its National Day (and why not everyone is happy about it)

BEACHES

Why are Barcelona’s beaches disappearing?

Barcelona's much-loved beaches are losing between six and 10 metres of sand per year, but why is this happening?

Published: 16 June 2021 15:30 CEST
Why are Barcelona's beaches disappearing?
Barceloneta Beach. Photo: Pau BARRENA / AFP

Barcelona may be famed for its beaches and they may be one of its biggest tourist draws, but it hasn’t always been this way.

In fact, Barcelona didn’t used to have any beaches at all, just ports and seaside neighbourhoods. It wasn’t until 1992 when the city held the Olympic Games that these neighbourhoods were demolished and the beaches were created. 

What’s the problem?

Since 2017, the city’s beaches have been losing between six and 10 metres of width per year, according to a recent study by the Área Metropolitana de Barcelona (AMB).

This beach erosion means that every year there is less and less sand for residents and tourists to lie on and enjoy. 

This is not a new problem however and has been going on much longer than four and half years. In 2016, the Barcelona City Council revealed that since 2010 Barceloneta Beach had lost over 15 metres in width, which is equivalent to 28 percent of its surface area.  

In another 2016 report, the regional authorities of Barcelona also showed that its beaches as a whole had lost 17 percent of their total amount of sand during the same time period, the same as five football pitches.

Why is it happening?

The study attributes this to the fact that there have been more storms than normal since 2017, which has prevented the natural recovery of the beaches.

Storm Gloria in January 2020 in particular caused significant damage to the beaches in the area and caused even more sand to be washed away.

In short, most of this is to do with climate change. 

The beaches that have been most affected and have lost the most amount of sand are those in the lower Maresme region and the towns of Masnou and Badalona.

Barcelona beaches being destroyed during a storm. Photo: JOSEP LAGO / AFP

What’s being done about it?

The Barcelona City Council has been continually adding a little sand to its beaches each year and moving it around from areas that have more to areas that have less.

Aitor Rumín, head of the beach management service of the Barcelona Consistory told El Pais last month that “the last major contribution of sand was made by the ministry in 2010. Since then we have only lost sand”.

“It’s survival, but we can’t do much more. The beaches lose 30 cubic meters of sand per year, especially in the southern parts of each of the beaches. The coastline is receding and we have beaches like Mar Bella, Nova Mar Bella and Llevant, where we can’t do anything to regain the sand,” he said.

Badalona Beach. Photo: JOSEP LAGO / AFP

While moving the sand around and adding a little each year may help to cover up the problem in the short term, it’s not really helping solve the problem and a long-term solution needs to be found.

The Área Metropolitana de Barcelona have been trying to stop the beach erosion with their Resilience Plan, which will ask for greater contributions of sand to try and balance out the current losses and divide the beaches up with breakwaters.

In the case of Badalona, it has been proposed that 13,200 cubic metres of sand be added to the beach each year, as well as to rethink the layout of the equipment located on the seafront. The construction of a breakwater on La Mora beach has also been proposed.

In Sant Adrià, the plan is to build another breakwater, as well as to remove the jetty in front of the old industrial areas. The council also hope to add a further 95,000 cubic metres of sand.

It is thought that similar plans may be carried out on Barcelona’s other beaches.

Is this a problem anywhere else in Spain?

Yes, beach erosion is a problem throughout Spain, as well as throughout the world, due to climate change.

Theocharis Plomaritis from the University of Cádiz who was one of the co-authors of the Nature Climate Change study published in March 2020, told El Periodico that by the end of the century the retreat of the beaches in Spain and Southern Europe could be 86 metres, if no measures are taken to contain climate change. 

According to the study, in the best case scenario – with measures to mitigate the effects of climate – the loss of sandy beaches in Spain would be 60 metres and 27 of these metres by 2050.

SHOW COMMENTS