It’s not just a Spanish problem. Cities across the world are struggling with how to cope with overtourism and a boom in short-term rental platforms, like Airbnb, but perhaps nowhere has surging discontent been so evident as in Barcelona, where protesters plan to take to the streets on Sunday.
Similar demonstrations are slated in several other Spanish cities, including on the Balearic islands of Mallorca and Ibiza, as well as in the Italian postcard city of Venice, Portugal’s capital Lisbon and other cities across southern Europe — marking the first time a protest against tourism has been coordinated across the region.
Spaniards have staged several large protests in Barcelona, Madrid and other cities in recent years to demand lower rents. When thousands marched through the streets of Spain’s capital in April, some held homemade signs saying “Get Airbnb out of our neighborhoods.”
They keep blaming the tourists, but as usual it’s scummy landlords that are the problem they’ve kicked people out and put the properties on air bnb or similar. They need to ban it and the problem will solve itself.
It’s not even that; it’s just a symptom of wealth inequality. Think about it: who are all these tourists and landlords, and why are they able to afford to outcompete the locals for the properties in the first place?
This is how we get nationalism. The rich blame somebody else and cause everybody to fight amongst themselves while they’re the real problem all along. Then with nationalism you can control people through blind allegiance. It’s a win win.
