Hundreds protest against airport expansion and tourism in Barcelona

Around 500 people gathered on Saturday morning and afternoon in Plaça Sant Jaume in Barcelona to demonstrate against tourism.

Specifically, the protest is called to voice anger against the authorities' plans to expand the city's airport, thus increasing the capacity of people who can travel through the facility, as well as growing levels of tourism, which many feel is having a disproportionately negative effect on the housing crisis in Catalonia. 

A coalition of ecologists, scientists, and local residents put out the call for the rally, criticizing the planned expansion of Barcelona Airport for its tourism-driven economic model that displaces residents and promotes "precarious employment."

Organized under the ZEROPORT platform, which includes groups such as Greenpeace, the activists have formed a united front against the project.

They argue that the extension, announced in mid-June by Catalan president Salvador Illa, will increase pollution, accelerate global warming, and further worsen the climate crisis.

Demonstrators chanted slogans against the Socialist Party, who are in charge of all of the Catalan government, Spanish government, and Barcelona city council, as well as other chants against the destruction of the environment and the perceived sensation of over-tourism in the city of Barcelona. 

'No, no, no, no to the expansion' was also a leitmotif heard numerous times through the afternoon, and was chanted while protestors launched hundreds of paper airplanes with their demands and arguments printed on the pages, at the doors of the Catalan government headquarters building. 

Activists also created a mosaic and sat in formation to create a large sign spanning most of the width of the square, again reading 'No to the expansion'.

Speaking to the media, ZEROPORT representatives Jaume Osete and Claudia Custodio affirmed that Saturday's demonstration was "only the beginning," with a view to stopping the expansion project. "In 2021, we managed to prevent it from going ahead, and now we'll do it again," they said.