Several thousand demonstrators – some 15,000 according to the Government Delegation – traveled this afternoon through the center of Valencia to demand the right to housing and against the touristification of the city under the slogan “València s’ofega” (Valencia is drowning), which commemorates the flood that flooded the town on October 14, 1957.
Four columns of demonstrators left from different districts of the city and converged at 6:30 p.m. towards the Seranos Towers, on the ramparts of which several demonstrators hung a large banner with the motto. “for the right to housing” and a Palestinian flag. Both were expelled by agents of the National Police.
The organizers, including the Consell de la Joventut, CCOO PV, the PSPV-PSOE, Compromís per València, Sumar or Acció Cultural del País Valencià, among other neighborhood and cultural associations of the Valencian capital, demand the regulation of rent prices, stop evictionsthe creation of a VPO park or the cessation of sales of housing to foreign capital.
It’s the Valencia that volem! Column oliverta-ciutat vella cap à la mani!
It’s not tourism phobia, it’s class behavior! ✊ pic.twitter.com/KGXO7m33fr
– Salsan (@LauraSalsan) October 19, 2024
In reference to the excess of tourists, it is requested that Valencia be declared a stressed zone, that tourist apartments be banned and that hotel activity be “strictly” regulated.
Likewise, they consider that “we must stop betting on tourism as an economic engine, put an end to the promotion of the city as a tourist destination and stop the entry of cruise ships and the expansion of the port and airport “.
Participants in the demonstration displayed banners with the slogans “housing is a right”, “Valencia is not for sale” or “from bench to bench” and at the start of the march they jingled the keys of their houses.
The PSPV-PSOE defended the application of the Housing Law in the Valencian Community so that “the prevent access to homes for young people and families“.
In the same sense, the spokesperson for Compromis in the Consistory, Papi Robles, asked the president of the Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, to declare “this very evening” the city of Valencia as a zone of tension, even if she is convinced that “I won’t do it because is on the side of the speculators“.
The demonstration crossed the main squares of the historic center of Valencia without incident and under an intense police presence to end in front of the Town Hall.
