More than 200 people gathered this Saturday on Somorrostro beach in Barcelona to protest against the celebration of the Copa América. The fun and festive day included a popular swim – initially prohibited by a red flag and fences on 50 meters of beach –, a Zumba class, an omelette contest and a human chain that attracted the attention of many bathers. . and had a strong deployment of Mossos d’Esquadra and Guardia Urbana.
“The Copa America is an elitist competition that privatizes public space and chases us off the beaches,” criticized Clara Tur, one of the spokespeople for the No to the Copa America collective. “You even have to ask for forgiveness and permission to put a towel there,” she stressed indignantly.
“Now it turns out that today we cannot bathe in this beach area due to superior orders,” continued the spokesman for the No to the Copa America: “This is one more example of absolutely incomprehensible privatization of public space.” And he stressed, given the little social impact of the event, that “we have a fan zone and one hospitality absolutely empty and many more people protesting here on the beach.
“In the end, we saw how the City Council equipped itself with a public space to create a private club and do business, a Barcelona and beach version of the Bernabéu club,” added Albert València, also spokesperson for the platform, which brings together nearly 150 neighborhood, cultural and social entities in the Catalan capital.
“There is total indifference towards a Copa America that has nothing to do with our society, they are multi-million dollar foreign teams that have landed like a UFO in the city only for the interest of certain elites,” said València. “And with completely false promises of visitors and wealth generation, there is no interest or audience,” stressed the platform’s spokesperson.
On the other hand, the entity recalls that the institutions have “watered” the sailing competition with more than 70 million in public aid. “A posteriori accounting is necessary to explain where our money has gone,” Tur said. “The media campaign has been brutal, but no real interest from citizens has been seen anywhere,” insisted the protest leader. No to the Copa América, they plan to demonstrate again on October 13 to show the “neighborhood rejection” of the competition.
Vermella flag and deployment of the fort police
The day of fun and protest this Saturday began around 10 am at one end of Somorrostro Beach, next to the Olympic Port. Dozens of people who came to the area unfurled towels, umbrellas, banners against the Copa America and banners with slogans such as “Let’s recover the coastline. Let’s sink the Copa America”, “No more elite parties. Tourism has a limit” or “Less brunch and more neighborhood”.
There was even a reproduction of a Copa America made of cardboard and aluminum foil and several inflatable orcas, the unofficial mascot of the campaign against the Copa America. However, a heavy deployment of urban police vans and Mossos d’Esquadra closely monitored the demonstration and fences were installed to prevent swimming for a distance of about 50 meters and a red flag was raised in the area.
Several people ignored the ban, broke police tapes and went swimming without major consequences. Around noon, the protest intensified with a human chain that was deployed along a large part of Somorrostro beach until reaching Barceloneta.
The Copa América, the most famous and broadcast regatta in the world, began last August in Barcelona. After more than two years of preparation and an announced public investment of 70 million euros, the slender sailboats with their masts over 20 meters high have been competing for weeks in the waters of Barcelona. At the same time, on land, the city faces the challenge of guaranteeing the mobility of neighborhoods, generating a positive economic balance and involving a local population outside of this sport.
For the moment, rental prices in the Barceloneta neighborhood have already been affected. Vacation rentals, which have skyrocketed throughout the city in recent months to circumvent rental regulations, have reached unprecedented levels in the neighborhood. Today, on the occasion of the kickoff of the world’s largest sailing competition, up to 80% of rental ads on portals such as Idealista are of this type. The highest percentage in the Catalan capital and 27% more than just ten months ago, according to data that elDiario.es has collected throughout this period on the advertising portal Idealista.
