Thousands of people took to the streets this Sunday in the Canary Islands to protest against the “destructive” tourism model. After the historic mobilizations of April 20, the population this time took their demands towards the tourist centers of the islands. “We want tourists to know what’s going on. Not only do we want our leaders to listen to us, but we also want those who visit us to understand that this model is not sustainable,” explained the organizers of these marches, which took place throughout the archipelago under the slogan ‘The Canary Islands have a limit.’ Islanders are demanding “real change” after institutions “ignored” their demands. The housing crisis, lack of water and the construction of new megaprojects are some of the reasons that have pushed the population to take to the streets.
“No more bed”, “It’s not tourism phobia, it’s canaricide” or even “We must protect our land from ecocide” are some of the slogans that were read. As organizers explained, today’s event was not a “mass demonstration,” as was the case on April 20, when more than 200,000 people gathered in the islands’ capitals. On this occasion, the objective was to launch a “target” at the heart of tourism in the Canary Islands and to recall that none of the requests made by residents over the last six months have been met. ”We ask this today please for the last time,” we could read on one of the posters of the march in Las Américas, in the south of Tenerife.
In this sense, among the reasons that explain the transfer of mobilizations to tourist enclaves, there is the precariousness of the employment of those who work in this sector. “Our fight is also aimed at all those who depend on tourism to survive. We are not fighting against them, but with them, demanding decent working conditions and a model that benefits all of society, not just big businessmen,” they say.
”By demonstrating in the heart of mass tourism, we are sending a clear message: they will not silence us. “We are here to stand up to those who enrich themselves at the cost of destroying our islands,” they add. Biodiversity loss, water scarcity and poverty, they point out, are just some of the manifestations of a larger problem. In this sense, activists did not fail to recall on October 20 that 775,000 people in the Canary Islands are threatened by poverty and social exclusion. This represents 33.8% of its population, as indicated in the XIV Report “The state of poverty. Monitoring indicators of the EU 2030 Agenda 2015-2022”. . Another data revealed by this report is that 64.8% of the population of the Canary Islands (around 1.4 million people) report having difficulty making ends meet, which is 4.1% more than the previous year .
Measures against the housing crisis, a moratorium on tourism, the suspension of major macroprojects on the islands, greater protection of natural spaces and a tourist tax are some of the demands that the population raised this Sunday. In Tenerife, the population is demanding the cessation of two macro-tourist projects: the La Tejita hotel, in El Médano, and Cuna del Alma, in Puertito de Adeje. With this objective, a group of activists even organized a hunger strike in April. But the regional government has not given in either. Likewise, residents of Tenerife are demanding solutions to the collapse of the roads. According to data managed by the Government Delegation, more than 6,500 people gathered in Las Americas.
In Gran Canaria, the mobilization also took place at 12:00 p.m. in Maspalomas and brought together 1,500 people, according to data from the Government Delegation. “Climate change only seems to matter when renewable energy is used as an excuse to sell off our land and resources to large multinational corporations. “This is not progress, it is exploitation,” we could read in the manifesto read at the end of the march.
Demonstrations also took place in Fuerteventura, La Palma, El Hierro and Lanzarote. On the latter island, more than 2,000 Protestants gathered in the tourist center of Puerto del Carmen. Concretely, the mobilization ended at the Fariones Hotel, owned by the influential businessman Juan Francisco Rosa. This week, as part of the protests against the tourism model, a group of activists broke into the illegal Papagayo Arena hotel, located in Playa Blanca. “Our water is in your swimming pool” or “this hotel is illegal” were some of the slogans repeated in the establishment.
This time the protest was also supported outside the Canary Islands and Spain. Concretely, as reported by the Association of Friends of Nature of Tenerife (ATAN), mobilizations also took place in Barcelona, Valencia, Granada, Madrid and Berlin.
