New protest in Barcelona, the largest to date, against the Copa América. Around 2,000 people, according to the Guàrdia Urbana, and more than 6,000, according to the organizers, have marched along the seafront of the Catalan capital in protest against the sailing competition which, they denounce, has aggravated the problem of housing and tourism. in the city.
The protest in Barcelona against the Copa América has coincided with the great march in Madrid for the right to housing. Without having the same objective, the protest in the Catalan capital has shown its support for that in the capital of Spain. The Barcelona Tenants Union has announced that it will soon call for a large mobilization.
Although formally the objective of the protest is different from that of the Madrid tenants’ demonstration, the impact of the Copa América on the right to housing is one of the most repeated complaints by organizers and protesters of the march. This Sunday’s march in Barcelona has been the union of several discomforts, which the competition has aggravated: effects of tourism in public spaces, housing and coexistence.
For example, in the Barceloneta neighborhood, seasonal rentals, inaccessible to most residents, have skyrocketed coinciding with the celebration of the Copa América. The march passed through this maritime neighborhood of Barcelona, and coincided with several attendees of the sailing competition. While the neighbors ironically called the “balconing” of those attending the march, the tourists applauded.
“The city is alive and Barcelona does not surrender to the rich, the vultures and the rentiers,” proclaimed the organizers, the No to the Copa América platform, in the final manifesto of the march, where cries against the mayor, Jaume Collboni or the effects of touristification. “Your sailboats raise our rents,” has been one of the slogans chanted in a protest atmosphere. A large device by the Mossos d’Esquadra has prevented the march from accessing the areas of the seafront that are used to watch the regattas.
“I demonstrate against the Copa América because I am from Gòtic and it affects me directly, but if it were because of the rents I would have come too,” said Pilar, an attendee of the march who lives in the center of the Catalan capital. “They give everything to the merchants and nothing to the people of Barcelona,” the protester added, pointing to a large British flag that flies in the port representing one of the participating teams.
Eduardo, Bea, Sergi and Patricia are a group of friends who attended the Barcelona demonstration against the Copa América thinking that it was a replica of the Madrid tenants’ protest, as happened with some of those attending the Copa America march. Catalan capital.
Eduardo and Bea moved to Barcelona this summer from Madrid and Granada. Having ruled out the capital due to the high prices, they found a rental for 900 euros in Cornellà for a 30 square meter apartment. “In Barcelona everything was seasonal rentals, they even asked you for money to go see the apartment,” Eduardo lamented.
Sergi and Patricia can live in Barcelona, but they begin to suffer because what will happen when their rental contract expires despite the price cap. “All the rents are very expensive and salaries do not increase,” Sergi confirmed. The organizers have announced new mobilizations if the parties opt to repeat the competition in 2026 in Barcelona.
Source: www.eldiario.es
