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PROTESTS

Spanish farmers roll out slow tractor protests

Farmers from Spain's northeastern Catalonia region took to the highways again Tuesday, blocking roads and access to key infrastructure with slow-moving tractors in protest over foreign competition and conditions in the drought-hit agricultural sector.

Published: 13 February 2024 16:33 CET
Spanish farmers roll out slow tractor protests
Demonstrators block the main entrance of the port of Tarragona. Photo: LLUIS GENE/AFP.

The demonstrations followed an earlier string of farmers’ protests that struck various European countries in recent weeks, including Italy, France and Belgium.

Several hundred tractors from across the region converged on the access roads leading to Tarragona port about 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of Barcelona as widespread agricultural protests entered their second week.

Further north, near the border with France, demonstrators blocked part of the AP-7 highway some 30 kilometres (17 miles) north of Girona, stopping traffic with their tractors, erecting barricades and torching dry branches.

READ ALSO: EXPLAINED: Why are farmers in Spain protesting?

Elsewhere, just over a dozen tractors blocked an access road leading to Mercabarna, Barcelona’s main wholesale market for fresh produce in the south of the city.

Tuesday’s protests, scattered across this region of eight million residents, were focused on the “unfair competition” from products imported from countries “not required to meet European standards”, said a statement from the Pagesos union which called the demos.

As in other European countries, angry farmers have been protesting over rising costs, high fuel prices, bureaucracy and the environmental requirements in the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and its forthcoming “Green Deal”.

READ ALSO: How long will the farmers’ roadblocks in Spain last?

Spain is one of Europe’s leading producers of fruit and vegetables but its farms have has suffered from a lack of rainfall that has plagued the Iberian Peninsula for the last three years. Droughts are exacerbated by human-caused climate change.

Last Wednesday, Catalan farmers turned out en masse with nearly 1,000 tractors converging on Barcelona to put their demands to the regional
government.

The latest demonstrations, which have rumbled on for just over a week, will once again be stepped up on Wednesday when various agricultural organisations
have called farmers to hit the streets across the country.

On February 21 they are planning a huge demonstration outside the agriculture ministry in Madrid.

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TOURISM

Granada and Mallorca pile more pressure on Spain’s mass tourism problem

Spain's anti-tourism protests continued over the weekend with locals in Granada and Mallorca taking to the streets to highlight the negative impact on rental markets and local environments.

Published: 17 June 2024 13:50 CEST
Granada and Mallorca pile more pressure on Spain's mass tourism problem

Spain’s growing anti-tourism movement continued over the weekend, with demonstrations in Mallorca and Granada protesting the impact of mass tourism on locals.

This comes amid recent protests in Barcelona, the Canary Islands, and Madrid, among many other Spanish cities. In several parts of the country local governments have brought in limits on tourist rentals, something many feel inflates the rental market and prices locals out of their own neighbourhoods.

READ ALSO: ‘It kills the city’: Barcelona’s youth protest against mass tourism

On Sunday Mallorca residents took to the Caló des Moro beach to protest over-tourism in the area. The demonstration, organised by the Mallorca Platja Tour movement, saw more than 300 people occupy the idyllic cove that locals claim is becoming more difficult to enjoy due to growing numbers of tourists.

Protestors had two large banners stating “Let’s occupy our beaches” and “It’s time to stop.” Caló des Moro was chosen as a symbol of an area where residents say they can’t go as it’s becoming so oversaturated with visitors, and the protest began at 8.00 a.m to anticipate the arrival of thousands of tourists who come every weekend.

For many locals, mass-tourism also presents an ecological danger with an “extreme situation” they feel the Balearic government is doing little to tackle. The town council of Santanyí, where the cove is, favours regulating the influx of tourists, and points out that the huge number of people on the beaches means that 50 kilos of sand are lost every day.

4,000 tourists visit the beach every day during the summer season, according to the local council.

Mass protests against overtourism also took place across the Balearic Islands on May 26th, showcasing locals’ intentions to continue protesting until something changes.

READ ALSO: ‘Beach closed’: Fake signs put up in Spain’s Mallorca to dissuade tourists

Down in southern Spain, hundreds of people also demonstrated in the Albaicín neighbourhood of Granada over the weekend, principally against tourist overcrowding in the area that complicates the day-to-day life of locals and drives up rents.

Locals complain that the famously narrow streets of Albaicín are now always packed with people, mostly tourists. “They don’t let people through, many groups come to see it,” one woman said, referring to the picturesque neighbourhood in the shadow of the Alhambra.

As many as 200 people gathered at the Mirador de San Nicolás viewing point, a popular spot for tourists in Granada due to its views of the Alhambra, under the slogan “Our neighbourhood is not a theme park, for a liveable Albaicín.”

Demonstrators also held up banners criticising the behaviour of tourists, such as “don’t take pictures of me, I’m not your postcard” and “more residents, less clients” among others.

READ ALSO: Valencia to stop issuing licences to Airbnb-style lets as rents soar past €1,000

As is the case across Spain, locals in Granada also feel that the increasing number of short-term tourist rentals in the area is causing rental prices to increase.

“It’s an uncontrolled phenomenon,” locals said, something they say has led to a decrease in the number of local people living in Albaicín.

Local resident Sergio Ayuso said “the neighbourhood has been filled with tourist accommodation. This is a blessing for the tourist agents but for the neighbourhood… it is our punishment.”

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