Take back control.

Rarely in the course of human history has a simple marketing slogan had such a seismic impact. When future generations of historians analyze Britain’s EU referendum, they might well conclude that these three words clinched it.

The Promise Of A National Rebirth

During those early months of 2016, as Britain geared up for its crucial vote, the slogan snowballed into an incessant mantra, seducing millions with the promise of a national rebirth which would cast new, golden light upon their drizzly lives. Once we’d freed ourselves from the dead hand of Brussels—the propagandists claimed—Britain would somehow turn back the clock 100 years and recapture a glory it last enjoyed in an age of steamships, telegrams and chronic illiteracy.

Well, now the Brexiteers have what they wanted. The drawbridge has been pulled up and good old Blighty has control of its destiny once again. But now we’ve got all this control, what precisely are we going to do with it?

Well, if the Leavers have an answer, they don’t want to share it with us. Instead of laying out a vision for Britain’s future, they’ve spent the last few days sticking a metaphorical thumb to their nose and waggling it around in the direction of Brussels. Nigel Farage, the self-styled “Mr. Brexit,” has found the time to unveil a giant portrait of himself, but can’t spare five minutes to tell us what he wants his new, independent Britain to look like.

The Many Unanswered Questions Of Brexit

Will Boris Johnson’s government prioritize a trade deal with Trump’s America, with all the political baggage that entails, or turn instead towards the young powerhouses of China and India? Will millions of skilled foreigners be expelled, and, if so, how will the beleaguered NHS replace all that lost manpower? Will London really become Singapore-on-Thames, an enclave of low taxes and light regulation, and, if it does, how will the Exchequer fill a GBP70 billion black hole in its revenues? None of these questions have yet been answered.

But that’s been the problem with Brexit all along, hasn’t it? The Brexiteers know what they don’t want, for sure; they don’t want the EU, which is accused of crushing our legislative system with laws no-one can actually name, and they don’t want immigrants, who somehow contrive to take our jobs and our benefits at the same time. But they don’t seem to know what they do want.

Brexit Has Always Focused On The Negative

Right from the get-go, Brexit has been a negative step. It’s based on what we dislike, rather than what we aspire to be. And it’s primarily come to pass because of the steps people didn’t take—the Remainers who failed to vote in 2016, then refused to join forces behind a single party in December’s election.

For those who voted Remain, it’s hard not to feel cheated. We’ve grown up with the EU, and what’s more, we’ve grown up in a globalized world. We’ve benefited from attending multinational universities, from working in global offices, from traveling the world. Now we’re being forced to accept an altogether different world view, one framed by nationalists who think Britain is the center of the universe and won’t be told otherwise.

Of course, this doesn’t mean we should ignore the referendum result. Yes, the Brexiteers won the EU referendum with the support of only a third of all registered voters, and the Conservatives achieved even less than that to win last year’s election. But rules are rules, and Britain, as everyone knows, is a country of fair play.

Nor should we turn our backs on Britain. It’s still a magnificent country, with a history envied the world over. We should be proud of the way our mighty little island has led the world in the advancement of liberty, technology, and racial equality. Of the way our grandparents, and great grandparents, stood up to the most vile empire the world has ever seen.

Britain Has Lost Its Way

But, judged by that historical yardstick, it feels like Britain has lost its way. A nation which has prospered through its open-mindedness, its willingness to expand beyond its borders and build relationships around the world, has chosen to hunker down behind a wall of suspicion. Brexiteers may look wistfully back upon the age of Empire, but those 19th-century imperial pioneers were fired by a spirit which is anathema to theirs.

One hopes that, one day, we get our Britain back. That this descent into suspicion and resentment is nothing more than a wrong turn, which will be corrected by a more enlightened government in a few years’ time. As the world gets ever smaller, a country with aspirations of global leadership can’ afford to retreat into the shadows.

The Brexiteers may think they have taken back control. But really, they’ve betrayed the principles which made their country great. If Leavers think Britain will prosper by turning its back on the world, they’re guilty of a grave misreading of history.

L'articolo Brexit: A Grave Miscalculation By A Country Which Has Lost Its Way proviene da InsideOver.

A fresh wave of protests rippled through Barcelona over the weekend, bringing spats, skirmishes and flying balls — but not the violence which has plagued the Catalan capital over the past couple of weeks.

The scheduling of back-to-back demonstrations, first by independence supporters and then by their loyalist rivals, had stoked fears of a fresh paroxysm of turmoil in a city which has been on edge ever since nine separatist leaders were jailed on October 14. Many had fretted about a repeat of the riots which engulfed central Barcelona in the days after the sentencing, when pro-independence protests veered out of control.

This time, however, the police were able to maintain control. Two people remain hospitalized after Saturday’s independence demonstration, which culminated in a tense protest outside the Spanish police headquarters, but the demonstrators stopped well short of launching rockets and Molotov cocktails at the Mossos d’Esquadra officers. Instead, they settled for lobbing plastic balls, many of them emblazoned with pro-independence messages. 

Of course, the relative tranquillity of the weekend’s activities hasn’t stopped the two sides from squabbling. Both loyalists and separatists have been at pains to insist they ‘won’ the weekend and that their event attracted superior numbers, as their endless tit-for-tat squabble continues.

The official police figures point to a clear victory for the separatists, whose event attracted 350,000 demonstrators on Saturday afternoon — as opposed to 80,000 for the loyalist event on Sunday morning. The organizers of the pro-Madrid rally claim their attendance numbers have been grossly underestimated as part of the separatist propaganda claim, and in fact 400,000 people turned up to cheer them on. Of course, those behind the independence rally make a similar claim, suggesting their numbers could have been as high as 750,000.

‘A very clear message’

Saturday’s demonstration was essentially a two-part event. First came the main protest, backed by Omnium and the Catalan National Assembly and held on Carrer Marina, a stone’s throw from the Barceloneta beach. Then a more radical demonstration, pushed by the hard-line Democratic Tsunami and Republican Defense Committees, held on Via Laetana, where the Spanish police force is located.

As the sun dipped behind the beachside skyscrapers on Saturday afternoon, a vast crowd gathered in a square dedicated to those who volunteered in the 1992 Olympics, many draping Catalonia’s Estelada flag behind them like a superhero’s cape. They chanted the words “justicia” and “independencia” and sang the Catalan national anthem, Els Segadors (The Reapers), a revolutionary paean which celebrates the Catalan peasants’ revolt of 1640.

After a mass march from central Barcelona had culminated in front of the main stage, speeches were given by a string of Catalan leaders including Marcel Mauri, a spokesman for Omnium — whose president Jordi Cuixart was among those jailed two weeks ago.

Mauri told the crowd that “we believe in a country where fundamental rights can’t be trampled on, where no-one can be convicted of sedition for organizing peaceful protests or putting out ballot boxes, where no-one is arrested or is the victim of police brutality for defending their ideas.” He said he carried a “very clear message to the state institutions: prison, repression and incarceration can’t stop the will of an immense majority of the Catalan people.”

The event carried a clear message: that despite the recent violence, the Catalan independence movement is overwhelmingly peaceful, with no truck for the chaos that has been inflicted on Barcelona by hard-line demonstrators.

One demonstrator, who didn’t want to be named, told InsideOver: “We’ve seen all the violence from the Spanish police — both in the way they handled the 2017 referendum and in the way they’ve responded to the demonstrations over the past couple of weeks. Our way is one of peace. We want to demonstrate, but in a peaceful way.

“Don’t believe what the Spanish media say. They love manipulating the facts. We are here because we want to stand up for democracy and human rights, in a way that is peaceful and constructive.”

However, despite the message of peace, the atmosphere changed markedly when the protest switched to Via Laetana, the street which became a Dantesque dystopia of burning cars and bloodied bodies in the initial post-sentencing backlash.

The event may have been designed to mark a continuation of the afternoon’s rally, but its crowd and atmosphere were now markedly different. The initial protest, thronged with families and elderly people, had been a benign affair by the sea; the evening event, dominated by young protesters wearing scarves to cover their faces, was altogether more fractious. 

Reporters, wary of the simmering tension, wore helmets as they listened to the massed crowd chant about the lying Spanish press — reflecting a widespread belief that the reportage of the recent violence has been nothing more than a smear campaign. 

Eventually, the Mossos d’Esquadra vans arrived, prompting a brief flashpoint as protesters were sent scurrying backwards. Eventually, however, the police were able to create their own no-man’s land around the headquarters and disperse the crowd — something they have singularly failed to do during recent demonstrations.

Carnival atmosphere

In everything but its core message, Sunday’s loyalist gathering bore close resemblance to the initial independence rally. Families packed the iconic Passeig de Gracia boulevard in central Barcelona, waving Spanish flags as well as the banner of the European Union. The streets played host to a red-and-yellow carnival, a celebration of life in a country famed the world over for its exuberance. 

Just like their counterparts on Saturday afternoon, the loyalists who came together on Sunday strived to paint a picture of enlightened moderacy. They sang the national anthem as well as Viva España, and demanded prison for Carles Puigdemont (who, unlike many other separatist leaders, managed to flee before he could be jailed back in 2017). But their message was clear: if you want to blame anyone for the recent bloodshed, it’s not us.

One participant, a butcher from Sabadell, told InsideOver:  “Firstly we don’t want independence and apart from that, [we’re here] for the violence that’s being seen these past few weeks in Barcelona. People can protest, as we’re doing now, but peacefully — not in the violent way that we’ve witnessed.

“A lot of those who don’t want independence stay quiet out of fear. They are scared to say what they think. Really in Catalonia, I’d say 80% of people don’t want independence. 

“Catalonia is a beautiful place, we have good food, good weather, beaches, good hotels, and this is destroying everything.”

To support the local population a significant number of people had come from elsewhere in Spain, carrying messages of support. One of them, a lawyer from Madrid, had taken his entire family on a six-hour trip to Barcelona to, as he told us, “support the Catalan people and tell them that we’re with them.

“We want to show that here there’s not only independence supporters. There’s also a section of the population, a significant majority, who — although you can’t protest in the way we’ve seen the radicals do — want to stay part of Spain.”

More to come

Already, thoughts are turning to the next event. Hardline separatist groups have planned a number of further actions in Barcelona over the next few days, including a strike which is set to bring further disruption to the city. 

Both sides will continue to argue that theirs is the path of reason and moderacy, and that any other interpretation is a complete fabrication by the other side. The sniping will continue in the press and the two factions will keep claiming propaganda victories as they try to outflank one another.

For now, though, Barcelona is approaching something resembling calm. The weekend’s huge protests may have turned into a propaganda battle, but thankfully they didn’t create a real one.

L'articolo Frontline Barcelona: Huge Protests Engulf City proviene da InsideOver.

The city of Barcelona is reeling from a fresh outbreak of violence today (17. Oct) after dozens of cars were set on fire in the latest fallout from the sentencing of 12 separatist politicians.

Protesters hurled acid and molotov cocktails at police as they vented their fury at the Supreme Court’s verdict in a third successive night of turmoil.

Following Tuesday night’s clashes, which had seen protesters set fire to barricades and containers in the Eixample neighbourhood, this time the violence centred on Carrer d’Diputacio, close to the Arc de Triomphe, where Catalonia’s interior ministry is located.

After initially throwing toilet paper and demanding the resignation of interior minister Miquel Buch, who is accused of encouraging police brutality against the demonstrations, protesters reacted violently when officers of the Mossos d’Esquadra attempted to disperse the crowd by firing rubber bullets. As the demonstrators moved away from the scene, they began setting fire to cars and containers and hurling missiles at police.

In total, around 45 cars are thought to have been set on fire, and various reports attest to the use of acid. Eyewitnesses also report demonstrators launching rockets at police helicopters as tensions spiralled out of control.

Week of fury

Barcelona was already in turmoil after two days of clashes, prompted by the Supreme Court’s decision to jail nine pro-independence figureheads for their part in the illegal referendum of 2017. A further three politicians were barred from further political activity.

Hours after the verdict was read out on Monday afternoon, an estimated 8,000 independence supporters flocked to Barcelona’s airport and caused the cancellation of over 100 flights. Then, on Tuesday night, an attempted sit-in that took place outside a Spanish diplomatic building had culminated in protesters setting fire to barricades and containers, a forerunner of last night’s disturbances. Over 100 people have been injured in the two attacks, with reports that several demonstrators have been partially blinded by rubber bullets.

“We’re going ahead”

Despite the controversy, pro-independence groups have insisted they will continue to protest the verdict handed down by Spain’s Supreme Court, suggesting that the Spanish authorities have caused the current crisis by attempting to suppress their democratic rights and handing down heavy jail terms to their figureheads.

A series of five ‘Liberty Marches’ began yesterday at various points across Catalonia, intending to converge on Barcelona Friday and culminate in a general strike, similar to the one which followed the failed independence bid of 2017.

Speaking to InsideOver, Sergi Perello, vice-secretary of the pro-independence CSC union and a key organizer of the protest, said that “the strike will go ahead, because we’ve got nothing to do with what’s happened [this week].”

Perello insists that his strike is not politically motivated, although he admits that his movement is pro-independence and the strike was convened in the wake of Monday’s Supreme Court verdict. He also condemned the actions of the police in suppressing this week’s demonstrations.

Asked if his strike risks stoking further tensions, Perello responded: “Are we supposed to stay at home? We organized this strike three days ago and the reasons are still valid.”

“We’re not responsible for [the fact that] in a strike there are a minority of people who commit violence. The majority have always been peaceful – we don’t have to feel guilty. It will make me very sad if there is violence. Violence is not good for this country [Catalonia] or our objectives.”

“The police must behave within the law.”

“We have the right to protest”

Other separatist leaders have come out in condemnation of this week’s clashes, notably regional president Quim Torra, who had earlier been criticized for encouraging the demonstrations.

Torra, who had urged independence supporters to “squeeze” in the run-up to the Supreme Court verdict and early joined one of the Liberty Marches, told Catalan TV this morning that the violence must stop, adding that “the independence movement condemns and will continue to condemn violence, wherever it comes from.” However, he also blamed “infiltrators and provocateurs” for causing the clashes.

Omnium, the pro-Catalan cultural group which has organized many protests itself, echoed Torra’s condemnation in an interview with InsideOver — but said the protests must continue.

“As always, we’re only going to lend our support to protests and actions that are peaceful,” an Omnium spokesperson told us. “Any action that is violent doesn’t represent us”.

“[However] we are in favour of the actions brought forward by Omnium and the Catalan National Assembly [another pro-independence movement]. The right to protest is a right guaranteed by the Spanish constitution”.

“Faced by the imprisonment of democratic leaders, we won’t renounce our right to protest. But we will, as always, appeal to all protesters that they remain pacifist, civil and exemplary. We’re a pacifist movement by definition.”

“This has gone far enough”

However many people in Barcelona believe it’s time to stop the protests – for everyone’s sake.

A spokesperson for the Catalan Civil Society, a loyalist movement which purports to repair relations between Barcelona and Madrid, told InsideOver: “It seems very sad to me that the Catalan Government and President Torra are manipulating all of us in Catalonia. What Torra has done is outrageous.

“The violence we saw today and the day before yesterday has crossed a red line in terms of freedom of expression and freedom of speech, really there are people who are taking advantage of the situation. 

“We call on those people, and Torra, to stop the pro-independence process and stop inciting violence, because it’s not going anywhere. They have to take all Catalans into account, regardless of whether they support independence.

“As an organization, we want to appeal to the spirit of existence. This violence has gone far enough now.”

L'articolo Barcelona continues to burn – but separatists vow to press on proviene da InsideOver.

Two years ago this week, Catalonia witnessed its greatest political turmoil since the death of Franco. An illegal referendum, organized by pro-independence politicians, resulted in a spate of clashes between voters and the Spanish Civil Guard, whose bloody baton charges went viral around the world. Within weeks, regional leader Carles Puigdemont had fled into exile, his declaration of independence in tatters. Twelve other separatists were in jail and the Catalan Parliament had been suspended.

It would be wrong to say this week’s anniversary opened fresh wounds. In truth, they never really healed. The two sides continue to bicker ceaselessly, and last week’s discovery of an alleged terror cell, run by hardline separatists, has poured further fuel on the fire.

As Spain’s Supreme Court prepares to sentence the jailed independence figures, fears of fresh violence are growing. While Catalan politicians call on their supporters to channel the spirit of the 2017 referendum and create a “democratic explosion,” the Spanish government is threatening to invoke article 155 again. And millions of ordinary people risk being caught in the middle.

Changing narrative

It’s easy to forget that, until recently, the separatist movement enjoyed only modest support. In the mid-2000s only 15% of Catalans identified as independentistas, and the region’s primary grievance was financial rather than political. Ordinary Catalans complained that they were being exploited by Madrid, forced to prop up Spain’s poorer regions and fund ludicrous projects such as the ‘ghost airports’ which have sprung up around the country. They rallied against the fact that the Basque Country had its fiscal privileges and the wealthiest of all Spain’s autonomous regions did not.

But the needle shifted dramatically around the turn of the decade, driven by the global economic crisis and the failure of Mariano Rajoy’s hapless government to arrest it. Instead of trying to console its Mediterranean bread-winner, the Spanish establishment went on the offensive. In 2010, an infamous Supreme Court verdict struck down several clauses in Catalonia’s regional statute, including the “preferential” treatment of the Catalan language in regional administrations and communications networks.

Over the next seven years the independence movement became a self-propelled missile, fuelled by its own failures. The Spanish government’s refusal to countenance any sort of climbdown causes a mutation of the narrative; instead of muttering about exploitation, ordinary people now talked of subjugation, and reasoned that they had no choice but to break away. Separatist leaders seized on the sentiment to hold illegal referendums in 2009 and 2014.

Finally came that third vote in 2017, the one that finally pushed the Spanish government too far. By imposing Article 155 and jailing the leaders of the ‘Process’, the Madrileño ministers might have thought they had stemmed the separatist tide. But, if you talk to ordinary Catalans, it’s clear the differences are as entrenched as ever.

Independence supporters still bristle at the brutality meted out to those who voted on October 1, and the fact that their figureheads have spent more than two years in jail without sentencing — while the police officers who launched that all-too-literal crackdown have never been sanctioned. They claim they have a right to decide their own future and insist that the Spanish government is repressing their language and culture.

The unionists say that this repression is a myth, pointing out that Catalan is the compulsory first language of schools and local government (despite that inflammatory ruling in 2010). According to them, it’s the separatists who have used aggression and intimidation on several occasions, most recently towards a female journalist during pro-independence demonstrations this week. And they point to recent polling figures which show that well under half the Catalan population supports independence (the referendum of 2017 may have returned a 90% majority in favour of independence, but this only equated to around 40% of the total voter base).

Tipping point

Matters came to a head last week last Monday (September 23) with the discovery of an alleged terrorist plot fomented by members of the ‘Republican Defense Committees’ (CDR), a hardline separatist group which has staged direct action in the past. Members of Spain’s Civil Guard reported the discovery of explosive materials as well as plans for a ‘D-Day’, which would have supposedly coincided with the sentencing of the jailed separatist leaders this month, and witnessed assaults on the regional parliament and other key targets. Nine people were arrested, although they insist they were simply creating fireworks for a local festival.

According to some reports, the plot goes right to the top of the Catalan political establishment. Spain’s EFE news agency claims that one of those arrested had met regional President Quim Torra before the police raid, and various outlets suggest Torra knew about the plans. Whatever the truth of these allegations, Torra and other secessionist politicians have fuelled the speculation by refusing to condemn the CDR. Instead, they have accused the police of mounting a “stitch-up” designed to “criminalize a peaceful movement”, and voted to expel the Civil Guard from Catalonia.

This stance is stoically supported by Omnium, the pro-Catalan cultural association whose president Jordi Cuixart was among those arrested in October 2017. Speaking to InsideOver, an Omnium spokesman said that the Spanish government has been condemned for the use of torture by the European Court of Human Rights on various occasions (the condemnations primarily relate to the treatment of terror suspects) and said that politicians in Madrid are simply trying to thwart democracy in Catalonia.

“It would be irresponsible [for the separatist politicians] to publicly condemn people for violence which hasn’t occurred or for events that haven’t been proved,” the spokesperson said. “The whole world knows that ours is a peaceful movement. Our pathway has always been one of non-violent action. 

“We’ve been organizing demonstrations of more than a million people for 10 years and there’ve never been altercations. The only violence we’ve seen up until now, the only one the world has seen, is the violence committed by the national police forces to obstruct the referendum of October 1 2017.

“It’s clear that the presumption of innocence is essential under the rule of law, especially where judicial investigations are secret. This is something that hasn’t happened. Quite the opposite, in fact: we’ve seen how the Spanish press published parts of the investigation and how information was filtered out to criminalize the independence movement.”

“Don’t play with fire”

Unionists disagree, however. In the Catalan Parliament, the centre-right Citizens Party has accused the separatists of supporting terrorism, comments which resulted in the expulsion of the group’s leader. Undeterred, Citizens has since tabled a motion of no-confidence against Torra and accused him of collaborating with the CDR. Meanwhile, national Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has warned secessionist politicians not to “play with fire” and warned that he is prepared to suspend the Parliament again.

One of the loudest loyalist voices is provided by the Catalan Civil Society, which purports to build bridges between Madrid and Barcelona. Its spokesman told InsideOver: “We see it as irresponsible that a person in charge of the Parliament says this when he has previously encouraged the CDR to push forward. 

“Torra has said before that, in his circle, there are a lot of ‘CDRs’. The guy is trapped between emotional impulses and the reasoned approach that he’s obliged to apply as president of all Catalans, not just one part. It’s a great responsibility.

“Anything can happen when a governor, instead of calming down a situation and appealing for people to come together, appeals to and feeds these groups. Maybe it’s for political support, maybe for financial support — because this has happened in Catalonia for years — but this guy is feeding the spiral. I don’t want to contribute to [the m unrest] but he’s contributing to a spiral that won’t end well.”

Increasing fears

The fallout continues. Spanish newspapers continue to release details of the ongoing investigation, including allegations that the CDR cell planned to blow up motorway bridges and collapse power lines. The reports are only fuelling fears of fresh violence when the 12 jailed separatists learn their fate, sometime in the middle of this month.

For the separatists, these are political prisoners who were jailed for expressing their democratic right and should never have served a single day. For the loyalists, they’re a dirty dozen, who mounted a coup d’etat and should be punished accordingly. Whatever verdict the judges in Madrid pass down, one side is going to be outraged.

Catalonia’s police forces declined to comment when asked by Il Giornale about their preparations for sentencing day. But Spain’s interior ministry has already ordered around 500 officers to be sent to Catalonia, and the number could rise to 2,000. The Mossos d’Esquadra police force has released a statement saying it is prepared to dispatch “the maximum number of resources” to deal with any disturbance. Undeterred, the CDR has promised a string of fresh actions to sow “chaos” across the region.

Will things turn violent? Perhaps unsurprisingly, the two sides view the prospect of violence very differently.

Omnium tells us “there will be no violent uprising. We will never justify violence, we come from a pacifist tradition. We think that non-violent civil disobedience is the way forward and we’re certain of the passivity of the Catalan people, as they have demonstrated over many years.

“Not even when innocent and unarmed people were being beaten at the voting centres during the referendum did the society behave violently.”

However the Catalan Civil Society suggests “there’s worry. There will be an escalation of tension, because there are people who think this [radical] stuff. People who have been deceived by propaganda. If they deceive you and you get frustrated, the outrage, a hyper-exaggerated reaction, will occur.

“We might see some last, desperate attempt… someone might do what we’ve seen with these guys who were preparing explosives and wanted to take down power and telephone lines to generate chaos. They can’t go forward any other way and some desperate people who’ll try anything.”

The society says that, if things do get out of hand, the Spanish government should “rise to the challenge and do what’s necessary,” even taking control of the Catalan Parliament again if necessary. In reality, however, Sánchez and his government are facing a horrible dilemma. Like those Supreme Court judges, they know that they will stoke the fire with whatever decision they make — and that this issue isn’t going away.

Meanwhile, the people of Catalonia wait. Most of them probably thought that October 1, 2017, represented a never-again moment, a cue for dialogue to finally take over. But few would now bet against one of the world’s sunniest regions plunging into darkness again.

L'articolo Catalonia At Crisis Point: Region Poised For Violence As Key Trial Looms proviene da InsideOver.

In recent weeks, a gripping story has seeped out of Barcelona’s sweltering subway system. Its heroes are a group of vigilantes clad in sports clothes, have-a-go heroes hunting the pickpockets who pilfer from unsuspecting tourists. The story paints a vivid picture of a city on the edge, whose politicians can no longer be trusted to protect their people.

These vigilantes have been patrolling the underground network for a decade, picking off the thieves in relative obscurity. But they’ve finally been dragged out of the shadows by Barcelona’s security crisis, which shows no sign of abating. With over 25 crimes being committed every hour, a city renowned for its golden serenity is now being portrayed as a melting pot of crime and unrest.

In a desperate attempt to seize the narrative, Barcelona’s politicians have finally announced a crackdown. But no-one seems particularly convinced it will make any difference.

Boiling point

The Catalan capital has always had its shadier areas, of course. The multicultural barrio of Raval, popular with boozy tourists, has long attracted police scrutiny for its ethnic tensions. But Barcelona has never had no-go zones, places that visitors are warned to avoid at all costs. Over recent months, however, things have turned decidedly ugly.

Seven people have been murdered since the start of summer, the latest a 26-year-old man who was stabbed at a disco in the Port Olimpic neighbourhood last week, after a dispute over a stolen mobile phone. As if these bloody feuds weren’t bad enough for the city’s reputation, the brutal attacks on two foreign diplomats – one of which proved fatal – have generated uncomfortable headlines around the world. The latest reports show that robberies are up 30%, and at least one sexual assault is committed every day. Street scuffles are now so common that no-one can keep count. 

As the people of Barcelona search for scapegoats, the spotlight has fallen on two prominent figures. One is the regional interior minister Miquel Buch, reviled by local security forces for failing to give them adequate resources. The other is Barcelona’s left-wing mayor Ada Colau, who stands accused of denuding local security forces and allowing criminals to act with impunity. Colau continues to claim that Barcelona is among the most secure cities in the world, but her opponents accuse her creating “disaster and chaos.”

Now, finally, it appears the politicians are ready to act. A new plan, backed by Buch and Colau, is in the works. Headlined Barcelona Secure City, it promises hundreds of new police units as well as a brand-new command centre near the central Placa Catalunya neighbourhood, which will allow the two primary police forces – the municipal Guardia Urbana and the regional Mossos d’Esquadra – to liaise with one another. The plan’s working committee has also demanded the modification of the Spanish penal code to ensure that repeat thieves face jail time, rather than fines.

Cynical response

However, many remain unconvinced. The plan won’t be finalized for several weeks, but already the unions of both the Guardia Urbana and Mossos d’Esquadra have spoken out in condemnation, saying they don’t have the resources to provide the increased security presence.

A spokesperson for the Mossos union, Uspac, told InsideOver that Buch and his fellow politicians are guilty of “neglect” in the way they have allowed the security situation to escalate, and pointed out that Mossos officers are paid less for over-time than for regular hours – a situation which makes many reluctant to work the extra shifts that will be necessary under the plan.

“If they want to put extra officers in one area, they’ll have to take them from another,” the spokesperson said. “We don’t think that’s the best way forward.”  

The reaction from the Guardia Urbana’s union, Sapol, was even more emphatic. Their spokesperson told us that Colau and her allies have “tried to dismantle our control structure”, removing judicial assistance from the officers while giving it to those arrested, and accused them of running a campaign of “persecution” against the agency which has allowed mafias to insinuate themselves.

Just like the Mossos, the Guardia Urbana believes that “you can’t take officers from one place and put them in another — if you do that, the problem will get even bigger.” The problem will only be solved, the spokesperson says, by paying the officers properly and giving them the necessary support to run a 24-hour service.

“We’ll carry on”

Perhaps the most troubling reaction of all comes from the vigilantes, the ones who’ve been patrolling the underground for years and have risen to stardom at the worst possible time for Barcelona’s leaders.

The group’s figurehead is Eliana Guerrero, who has been running the patrols since the beginning. She told InsideOver that Barcelona’s security situation will only be resolved if the authorities are willing to take proper action – something which she believes they have no intention of doing.

“They’re going to do a quick fix,” Guerrero said. “They’ll rush through, like we’ve seen before [with previous legislative changes]. They’re going to muddle through with a botched job, a patch-up, and it’ll be a case of ‘ok, we’ve fixed everything.’ It won’t be the case.”

Although Guerrero is a leftist herself, she told us that Colau and her supporters have allowed their ideology to blur their approach to administration.  

“They see the police as the enemy, and there’s certainly resentment from the law enforcement bodies. And we’ve seen her give plenty of scope to certain groups – yes they are human beings and we have to find solutions, but you can’t give them so much free rein that things spiral out of control, as we’re seeing now.”

In light of the recent response the vigilantes have received, the politicians would doubtless love them to stop their patrols. However, Guerrero told us she had no intention of calling a halt, vowing “to keep undertaking these patrols until I see a real change.”

No doubt the politicians will continue their charm offensive over the coming weeks, before their security blueprint is finally ready for roll-out. They’ll make further lavish promises of increased security, better coordination, and a clean-up of those now-infamous no-go areas.

But for now, at least, Barcelona continues to simmer. The frenzied summer tourist season may be drawing to a close, but few people believe things will cool down any time soon.

L'articolo Barcelona Crisis And The Clash Between Politicians And Vigilantes proviene da InsideOver.

The dust is still settling on Saturday’s clashes between right and left-wing demonstrators in the US city of Portland, but President Donald Trump has already decided who’s responsible. 

Even before the two sides came to blows, in fact, Trump had renewed his threat to label the Antifa (anti-fascist) movement a terror organization. As if the message wasn’t clear enough, he then retweeted a message describing Antifa as a “violent, anti-civil liberties, group of thugs.” There was no mention of the Proud Boys or any other far-right group that stood against them.

Trump’s position on Antifa is enthusiastically endorsed by the American right. Two of his fellow Republicans are already pushing their own Congressional resolution to proscribe Antifa; conservative broadcast networks routinely regurgitate footage of the group’s clashes, and have jumped on reports that Antifa activists vandalized vehicles in Portland.

But if Trump and his followers really want to stop Antifa, they’ve got a problem. To shut down a movement, you have to collar its leaders. And Antifa doesn’t really do leaders. 

The movement isn’t really an organization at all, but rather an amorphous collection of local groups, orchestrated by activists who rarely reveal their identity. While the right-wing has easily recognizable figureheads like Joe Biggs, the Proud Boys organizer who rushed to address the media after Saturday’s clashes, Antifa’s organizers prefer to shield themselves with balaclavas and black uniforms. 

What the movement does have, however, is ideologues – a group of writers and broadcasters who provide both its conscience and terms of engagement. None of them are directly involved in organizing Antifa events, yet their articles have laid out Antifa’s core principles and provided a set of causes to fight for.

As the clashes between left and right continue, each person profiled here is gaining prominence, as well as criticism from conservative circles. Trump may soon decide to pick a Twitter fight with them, to appease his right-wing base. But, if he does so, they’re unlikely to back down.

Mark Bray

Formerly a key member of Occupy Wall Street, Bray has spoken at several Antifa events and is arguably the movement’s most important thinker, thanks to his bestselling Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook. In the book, Bray charts the rise of anti-fascism from the 1920s and provides advice from antifa members past and present. 

One of Bray’s core concepts is “pre-emptive self-defence” – the idea that fascists need to be stopped as soon as they emerge to avoid further harm down the line. He believes that, in certain situations, violence and destruction of property is ethically justifiable – and uses the shutdown of controversial speaker Milo Yiannopoulous as a case in point.

Bray has also argued for a fundamental change in America’s economic and political establishment, writing that  “capitalism stokes the far-right” and that “Trumpism is merely the latest wrinkle on [a] longer history of white supremacy in the US”, which can only be ended with a fundamental, root-and-branch rethink.

In addition to his media work, Bray is a history professor at Dartmouth College, a private university in New Hampshire, specializing in modern politics, terrorism and human rights.

Natasha Lennard

An author and columnist for various titles including popular grassroots website The Intercept, Lennard is among the most popular commentators on Antifa. She’s also one of the most uncompromising.

In her own words, Lennard’s recent book Being Numerous: Essays on Non-Fascist Life makes “a philosophical defense of punching Nazis.” Her articles echo this belligerent tone, encouraging readers to “make Nazis afraid again” and “crush the racist far-right”. In her view, the history of anti-fascism “is not one of polite protest, nor failed appeals to reasoned debate with racists – but direct, aggressive confrontation.”

Lennard is a vehement critic of Trump’s immigration policies, suggesting they are nothing less than “mass murder,” and has written equally passionate columns about topics such as gender equality and the treatment of sex workers. Echoing Bray, she believes that fascism was “baked into” capitalism and is an inevitable offshoot from it.

Daryle Lamont Jenkins

Much of the coverage of Antifa stems from the tactic of ‘doxxing’, the naming and shaming of far-right activists on social media. If there is a ‘doxxer in chief’, it’s Daryle Lamont Jenkins.

Jenkins is the founder of the One People’s Project website, which purports to unmask right-wing individuals and has assembled a ‘rogue’s gallery’ of alleged neo-Nazis. The movement has unearthed far-right activists from towns across America, but vows that it will only ‘dox’ someone after vigorous research. 

Jenkins, 51, says he got interested in activism by hunting Ku Klux Klansmen as a child, and sharpened his snooper skills while serving as a police officer in the US Air Force. He’s been monitoring and documenting white supremacists since the late 1980s.

In addition to his monitoring work, Jenkins has produced several films about the alt-right and anti-fascist movements, including the acclaimed 2018 movie Skin.

Dan Arel

A journalist and broadcaster, Arel is a regular contributor to several titles including the progressive website Truthout, and hosts the Danthropology podcast which has featured commentators such as Bray.

Arel has written on a range of subjects, from the evils of gentrification to the dangers of religion. He has openly accused Trump of being a fascist and believes that conservative criticism of Antifa is simply a “right-wing conspiracy theory to make the public afraid of the left.”

Never afraid to court controversy, Arel has been criticized by right-wing opponents for calling conservative commentator Dave Rubin – who is of Jewish descent – a Nazi on Twitter. He also caused heated debate on the same platform by writing “I believe victims of rape”, a comment taken by some to mean that all rape accusers should be believed unconditionally.

James Anderson

Anderson is an editor of and spokesperson for the anarchist website ItsGoingDown, which spreads news of Antifa doxxings and, in its own words, “promotes revolutionary theory and action”. 

The site is one of the most popular left-wing news platforms on social media, and was reportedly receiving up to 20,000 hits a day in the months after Trump’s election. Its collective of authors publish links to far-left demonstrations and brings reports of repression around the world, as well as encouraging support for anarchists in prison.

Anderson has given several interviews condemning the subculture around Trump and suggesting that several members of his administration are only “one circle removed” from Richard Spencer, one of America’s most infamous white nationalists.

L'articolo Taking on Trump: Meet the ‘Brains’ of the Antifa Movement proviene da InsideOver.

This week marked 10 years since ETA, Spain’s most infamous terror group, carried out its last fatal attack. At a small ceremony in the Mallorcan town of Palmanova, politicians gathered with members of Spain’s Civil Guard to remember the two officers killed that day. Both men were in their 20s and had spent barely a year in service when their patrol car was blown up in an act of utterly random brutality.

With a decade now passed, Spain should finally be able to move on. To stop talking about ETA and be thankful that its reign of violence is over. But two other acts of homage, thousands of miles away from Mallorca, have ensured that the group is once again front and center of the national consciousness.

Just days before the ceremony in Mallorca, two former ETA members returned home to the Basque country after being released from prison. José Javier Zabaleta, once described as the organization’s second-in-command, headed back to the coastal town of Hernani on Saturday after 29 years’ incarceration. The following day, henchman Xabier Ugarte returned to his tierra natal in Oñati for the first time since 1997.

Both men committed horrific crimes. Zabaleta, known as Baldo, was sentenced to over 250 years in prison for various atrocities, notably a machine gun attack which killed four Civil Guard officers as well as a local barber. Ugarte was convicted for staging a separate attack which left two officers dead, as well as staging the longest kidnapping in ETA’s history, lasting over 500 days.

After so much violence, one might expect the men to receive muted receptions, at best. Yet in both cases they were greeted with a guard of honor in the street, accompanied by flares, banners and raucous cheering. Viewed out of context, it looked like the sort of street party which is staged in hundreds of Spanish towns at this time of year.

Footage of the two receptions has gone viral and sparked furious debate in the national media, with calls for the well-wishers to be punished for accepting the terrorists back into the fold so enthusiastically. For the Spanish nation, it’s a grim reminder of how much influence ETA still has in its local communities and how the group’s legacy lives on, even though it dissolved more than a year ago.

Lingering suspicion

When ETA publicly announced its dispansion in a video last May, the media coverage inevitably focused on the trail of bloodshed left behind. Commentators bemoaned the fact that the group had killed 850 people in its 60-year campaign of violence, many of the victims nothing more than innocent by-standers who had done nothing to provoke their fate.

For many Basques, however, the narrative is more complicated. A study released in the wake of ETA’s dissolution found that over one in four Basque respondents still viewed them as a resistance movement, rather than a terror gang. This rather eye-catching finding reflects a lingering suspicion towards Madrid in the region, caused by years of antagonism from both sides.

Franco may have been dead for nearly half a century, yet many in the Basque Country and its annex, Navarra, still remember the crimes his regime committed. The bombing of Guernica, the torturing of Basque intellectuals, the failed attempts to eliminate the Basque language. 

Younger people take umbrage at the Spanish authorities’ often clumsy attempts to control the region. In one notorious incident, a group of youths in the Navarra town of Altsasu were jailed for up to 13 years for brawling with off-duty Civil Guard officers in a local bar. To the surrounding populace, it felt like a deliberate attempt to punish them.

Critics in Spain’s conservative circles will tell you that this sentiment has been gleefully whipped up by Euskal Herria Bildu (Basque Country Unite), a hard-left political coalition which vehemently supports independence and has defended ETA several times in the past. Some even claim that Bildu is the modern manifestation of ETA, their relationship akin to that between Sinn Fein and the IRA in Northern Ireland.

In light of the weekend’s footage, Bildu’s leaders have pleaded for the gatherings to be treated with a sense of “normality.” They insist that those who lined the streets for Baldo and Ugarte were were not paying homage, as many in the media claim. They were simply family and friends, greeting a loved one they’d not seen for decades.

A spokesman for the group told InsideOver: “Let’s be clear about this. What we saw this weekend was not an act of homage, an applause for what anyone did. 

“It was simply an act of reception in this person’s town after many years in prison, in exile. It’s an act of welcome, as you could see by the signs – they were even using the Basque words for ‘welcome’.

“We know that some people will interpret this as an act of homage, but we don’t think that’s the right interpretation.”

‘Glorification of serial killers’

But for those who suffered at the hands of ETA, and their families, this doesn’t wash. One of the fiercest critics of the recent gatherings has been Consuelo Ordoñez, whose brother was killed by ETA in 1995. Ordoñez now heads Spain’s Terrorism Victims Collective and has played a key role in sharing the video of Baldo’s return to Hernani.

“There are 50,000 prisoners in Spain,” Ordoñez tells InsideOver. “Would it seem okay if a murderer was released onto the street, and their friends and families closed off a town square to hold an event like the one we saw this weekend? What about the jihadists who committed those attacks in Barcelona a couple of years ago? What if they were honored when they left the prison?

“People might say that Baldo and Ugarte are well known in their communities, but why are they well-known? Because they have been sent to prison for kidnap and murder. For some people this is laudable, admirable, an act for which they deserve gratitude. 

“What we saw was nothing more than bragging, glorifying and taking pride in serial killers.”

The view was echoed by another victims’ association leader, Carmen Ladrón de Guevara, who helps families get over the trauma of their loss.

“We have to ring psychologists to prepare the relatives whenever a member of ETA is freed,” Ladrón told us. “The idea that these people will get a hero’s welcome is usually their biggest fear, and it’s just an extra pain. A humiliation, in fact.”

Ladrón has no time for the idea that the weekend’s events were simply family gatherings. She says this is simply an attempt to get around Spanish law, which forbids the “exaltation” of terrorist groups. The law has been used to impose jail terms in the past, but it relies on clear and obvious evidence that suspects are cheering extremist activity, and not simply those who perpetrate it.

“If they want to hold a family gathering,” she asked us, “why do it in the street? They can do it at home or in a restaurant – which is typical in the Basque Country. But don’t do it in the street, in an ostentatious way like you’ve seen with the posters and the flares.”

Taking a stand

Now, after so much media fall-out, the authorities in Madrid are getting involved. The government, led by Pedro Sánchez, reeling from his failure to form a stable coalition after months of trying, has said it will instruct Spain’s public prosecutor to investigate the gatherings in Hernani and Oñati, calling them “an insult to the victims of terrorism and to society.”

It’s easy to see why the government is so keen to take a stand. Sánchez has long been accused by right-wing critics of being too soft on separatists, too willing to deal with groups such as Bildu. But the Basque authorities have already refused to open a case, believing it was too difficult to establish the well-wishers’ intentions. Any attempt to punish them at national level is sure to be messy, and will only serve to prolong tensions in a region which still bridles at Spain’s heavy-handedness.

Perhaps the Spanish government, and media, would be better off turning the page. Instead of trying to punish those who welcomed the ageing ETA enforcers, it might be advisable to deny terrorism the oxygen of publicity. Instead of dwelling on the acts of homage which took place in the Basque Country, they should remember the one held in Mallorca instead.

L'articolo Hero’s Welcome for ETA Terrorists Reopens Old Spanish Wounds proviene da InsideOver.

When Ursula von der Leyen was nominated for the role of European Commission president, she was pitched as a compromise candidate. Someone the various factions could get behind to end their unseemly squabbling. French leader Emmanuel Macron, a champion of Von der Leyen’s cause, said that ‘European DNA’, the genetic code of cross-continental consensus, coursed through her veins.

In Von der Leyen’s home state, it’s hard to find many who would recognize this portrayal. In Germany, she is nicknamed ‘Steel Magnolia’, a battleaxe who burns bridges where others build them. She’s already one of the country’s least popular politicians, and once she assumes residence in Brussels, it’s only going to get worse. Having risen to the EU’s top job with the backing of Angela Merkel, Von der Leyen’s policies have put her on a collision course with her long-standing ally.

Von der Leyen was one of Merkel’s first cabinet picks when she became chancellor way back in 2005. She’s remained in the government ever since, the only person to have been there throughout Merkel’s entire reign. But she’s made plenty of enemies along the way, as was glaringly evident during her recent election campaign.

Former Social Democrat leader Martin Schulz, whose party told its MEPs not to vote for Von der Leyen, described her as “the government’s weakest minister.” This reaction was echoed at all points on the political compass, from the Greens to the far-right Alternative fur Deutschland. Even Katarina Barley, who previously served alongside Von der Leyen in Merkel’s government and is now a vice-president of the European Parliament, vowed to vote against her.

As political commentator Christian Weilmeier explains, Von der Leyen’s reputation is at an all-time low among the German people – only a third of whom think she’s the right person to lead Europe. While Merkel is generally respected for her basic decency, Von der Leyen is caricatured as a lone wolf who’s never afraid to bare her teeth. As Weilmeier tells InsideOver, “she’s seen as very career-oriented, very selfish. She’s not with the people, she’s focused on her own world. She’ll always pursue what’s good for her.”

During her time as defence minister, Von der Leyen provided ample evidence of her lone-wolfishness. Weilmeier describes her tenure as “a disaster”, a view reinforced by one former German army officer, who spoke to InsideOver anonymously. The newspapers may have focused on reports that Von der Leyen subverted government procurement rules to hire a series of external consultants, including one which employed her son. But as the officer tells us, this is only the tip of the iceberg.

“She was always quick to blame others for her mistakes,” the officer says. “We had an assault rifle crisis for example, and she blamed everyone but herself. Then it emerged that there was a plot to frame refugees for terror attacks, and she handled it terribly. She said there was a racism problem in the Germany army, and a failure of leadership. How can you say that to people in combat, who risk their lives? It was a disgrace.

“She fired generals of 40 years’ service without even telling them, and ordered pictures of generals taken down from barrack walls because they’d fought in World War II – even though they’d served the German army for years in the post-war period. 

“In the army, you won’t find who’s sad that she’s gone. As a European citizen, I can only say that I’m sorry for our continent.”

A sad day for democracy

Von der Leyen may have hoped that, by swapping Berlin for Brussels, she might escape some of the criticism. But the manner of her ascent to the top job has only heightened the scrutiny back home. 

In backing Von der Leyen, EU leaders defied a protocol known as spitzenkandidaten, which obliges them to choose from the candidates nominated by the Europe’s MEPs. If you’re struggling to work out which country came up with this protocol, the name’s a bit of a giveaway.

To make matters even more sensitive, the EU leaders chose her over another German, Manfred Weber, who had been nominated by an overwhelming margin in his party. Weber has since become one of Von der Leyen’s most vehement critics in the German press, calling her election “a sad day for European democracy,” 

Now, however, Von der Leyen has the chance to stamp her authority. She’s already shown her willingness to go against her home country by removing Martin Selmayr, the powerful head of the European Commission’s civil service, after vowing that “there can be only high-ranking German at the top… and hopefully this will be me.”

Soon, however, she’ll have to start putting her ideas into practice, which is likely to throw up even more obstacles from her own state.

The centerpiece of Von der Leyen’s campaign was the promise of a ‘Green Deal’, designed to make Europe carbon-neutral by 2050. She wants to ramp up the bloc’s emissions reduction targets and prevent companies shuffling between EU countries to dodge pollution restrictions. She’s even pledged to turn part of the European Investment Bank into a climate bank, unlocking €1 million of investment. Will this go down well with Nigel Farage?

Merkel has some impressive credentials when it comes to climate change, having steered the UN’s inaugural climate change conference way back in 1995. However, under pressure from German industrial lobbyists, she’s actively worked against many of the EU’s most progressive environmental measures.

On Merkel’s watch, the German government has given away generous pollution rights to its factory chiefs and blocked EU plans to limit new car emissions. The chancellor has pressured Brussels to water down its climate targets and opposed plans to increase the share of renewables in the overall energy mix. She’s even rejected the idea of pushing for zero carbon emissions by 2050 – the very target Von der Leyen is running with.

Yet all this pales into insignificance compared with the potential impact of Nordstream 2, the new pipeline which will pump gas from Russia to Germany via the Baltic, cutting countries such as Ukraine and Poland out of the loop. These countries fear Russia may now cut off their gas supply, or even launch military action with no pesky supply deals to worry about. Observers further afield worry about Vladimir Putin gaining too much influence over European affairs. Yet Merkel has consistently defied the EU’s attempts to take control of the Nordstream project, and she’s succeeded in brokering a deal which allows Germany to decide whether or not the EU’s regulations should apply.

For Von der Leyen, a proud Putin hawk, the idea of the Kremlin having a foothold in the heart of Europe doesn’t bear thinking about. But to guard against this chilling reality, and deliver her flagship environmental package, she may have to rally herself for a showdown with the woman who helped put her in office.

Will such a showdown come to pass? Christian Weilmeier says it’s “very difficult to say. Von der Leyen’s been part of Merkel’s inner circle for years and I presume that, in the event of severe differences, Merkel will try to avoid any rupture.

“On the other hand, Von der Leyen will stay longer in office than Merkel, so will be eager to avoid anything which could rock her power within the Commission. She must consider more interests than Merkel, especially Macron, who has a different agenda than Merkel. Merkel always tries to avoid open conflicts, but this is no guarantee that this strategy will be successful in this case. 

“One thing’s for sure: Von der Leyen won’t be a Commission president who defends German interests. Germany, and its mode of politics, will face big trouble in the years to come.”

L'articolo An Enemy of Her State? proviene da InsideOver.

On Saturday, amid the great tide of humanity lapping around Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia, a hardy clump of demonstrators stood out. They marched through the packed crowds, explaining to the tourists, in a variety of languages, why their visit to Barcelona could have catastrophic consequences.

The protesters, who numbered around 150 people, all live in the area around the Sagrada Familia, and fear that their homes will be demolished under plans to expand the cathedral and give the tourists more space. Saturday was just the latest protest by the residents in their desperate attempts to stave off expulsion.

The protest provides a snapshot of the tension that’s simmering between Barcelona’s residents and the millions of interlopers sharing the city with them. You see it in the four-letter graffiti daubed around popular landmarks such as Parc Guell; you hear it in the bars when tongues have been loosened. As Barcelona prepares for Sunday’s municipal elections, the ‘tourism problem’ has become a keynote theme.

The Catalan capital should be basking in its visitor boom. In the last 30 years, the annual number of visitors has increased nearly six-fold. Last year alone, their spend rose by 6.9%. This flood of people and money has allowed sites as Parc Guell and the Sagrada Familia to become booming industries in their own right. F.C. Barcelona’s museum recently announced annual revenues of 58 million euros, nearly as much as the club makes on matchdays.

But, if you ask the people who actually live here, they’ll tell you the guiris (a derogatory term for a clueless foreigner) are sullying the city’s heritage. They might mention the swarm of Airbnb properties in the Gothic Quarter which are pushing out ordinary families. Or the stag dos which have brought a proliferation of pimps, pickpockets and prostitutes to Las Ramblas. Or even the army of street hawkers who have created their own markets around the beach, the parks and the Placa Catalunya interchange.

In recent months, the situation has threatened to boil over. Last July Arran, a left-wing youth group, invaded a tourist bus and let off smoke bombs in an “industrial action against the [current] tourism model”. A month later, a group of vendors were caught on camera scuffling with an American visitor. The footage went viral and the two sides blamed the other for starting it; vendors told local reporters that the police and media were deliberately trying to stir up hatred against them.

But Barcelona is in a bind. The city’s planners know that tourism accounts for 15% of the city’s GDP, and 9% of its employment. Without the influx of flights and cruise ships witnessed since the 1992 Olympics, the city would not have become a European powerhouse. Barcelona lags far behind many of its European rivals for manufacturing and business services, so if it wants to project itself as a truly global city, it needs those guiris to keep coming in.

Pere Mariné, of Barcelona’s Federation of Neighbourhood Associations (or FAVB, to call it by its Catalan acronym), sums up the point eloquently. The group, which works to improve the quality of life for Barcelona’s inhabitants, has long urged municipal leaders to modify their tourism strategy. However Pere is keen to make the point that the FAVB isn’t against tourism per se. It is simply against the “over-crowding” and “over-exploitation” permitted under the current model.

“Barcelona is an open and cosmopolitan city, with a welcoming character,” he tells InsideOver. “There’s no problem in receiving visitors, expect when the number reaches a point that creates genuine problems for the residents.

“This is something that’s happened in all tourist hotspots. The boom in low-cost flights and the boom that’s accompanied the end of the crisis has given more people the opportunity to travel, and that’s great. But the problem is that, if you don’t have any kind of controls in place, you get what’s happened in cities like Venice.

“The tourists are using the bulk of services that everyday people rely on. Commerce, healthcare, security, water, light… this might be a small part of the usage for the city as a whole, but you get to a point when the over-use isn’t compensated [by the money the tourists bring].”

Marine says there are two main problems. The first lies in the fact that tourists disrupt the “rhythm of life” of local people by partying in residential buildings and crowding access roads to schools and hospitals. The second is the damage the tourism industry has wreaked on popular neighbourhoods by driving up rental prices and pushing out traditional shops, which have given way to more visitor-friendly businesses.

Government in the firing line

When asked who deserves the blame for the explosion, Marine points the finger at the tourism industry for its attempts to exploit Barcelona’s cultural heritage. However others take a different view.

Many blame the municipal government, and in particular Ada Colau, the left-wing activist who has served as mayor for the past four years. Critics suggest Colau hasn’t done enough to curb the tourism problem. That she has focused on trivial policy gains rather than tackling the big issue head on.

Colau’s defenders will point out that, during her time in office, Barcelona has actually won a string of accolades including the World Travel Market award for responsible tourism. They’ll also point to the number of individual campaigns she has spearheaded, including increasing in the tourist tax and reducing the number of piers available to cruise ships from eight to seven. Colau’s government has told Airbnb to close hundreds of illegal properties and recently announced that it is funnelling €1.27m into a network of ‘detectives’, whose mission will be to track down such dwellings (the announcement came just weeks after reports in the local media that tenants were sub-letting their own properties, without their owners’ consent).

On Colau’s watch, City Hall has also overseen the publication of a landmark policy blueprint, called Tourism 2020, The blueprint’s author, Albert Arias, an academic at the University of Barcelona, tells InsideOver that the goal of the document isn’t to restrict the flow of visitors. Rather, it’s to build a joined-up strategy, integrated with Barcelona’s overall agenda, to mitigate the negative effects of tourism and to promote the social return.

Arias mounts a robust defence of Colau when asked to evaluate her record in office. He says that it’s impossible to put firm controls on the number and type of people who come to Barcelona, but Colau’s administration has done all it can to develop a proper structure.

“For the first time, we have a coherent strategy for managing tourism in Barcelona,” he says. “Never before have people considered tourism as an inherent activity of the city, and discussed how to govern it like other urban issues like housing or traffic. It’s a paradigm shift.”

“You can see it in the awards the city has won from organizations like the World Travel Market. But you can also see it the current election debate. The other candidates aren’t talking about how to attract more tourists, they’re talking about how to manage tourism activities to ensure the common good. Colau and her government have changed the game.”

Acid test

Whether Colau manages to see off those other candidates in Sunday’s vote remains to be seen, however. The latest polls suggest she faces a fierce fight against Ernest Maragall, the candidate of the pro-independence Republican Left, who has tapped into the popular frustration by proposing a brand-new levy on top of the current tourist charge, which he has christened the “Barcelona tax.”

The other parties have made their own promises. Together for Catalunya, until recently the most popular separatist party, has proposed investing more money in affordable accommodation for the most congested areas; the right-wing Popular Party has targeted the street hawkers and vowed to shut down their markets, referring to the vendors’ boulevards as “Colau’s galleries”. All the leading candidates have promised to increase the existing tax, in pursuit of what has become known as “tourism of quality.”

Whoever emerges triumphant, whatever measures they put in place, tourism is sure to remain a hot-button issue. The peak summer months are looming, raising the prospect of fresh clashes between Barcelona’s beleaguered burghers and the foreigners coming for a dash of sun, sea and sangria.

Peré Marine doesn’t think the situation will degenerate into outright violence. However he does believe we will see “more forceful, concrete action, more frequently” from groups like Arran, which has already promised further demonstrations.

Barcelona’s leaders, who have spent years cultivating an image of a peaceful, fun-loving metropolis, such no doubt view such a prospect with horror. The industry which has powered Barcelona’s rise to global prominence could end up bringing it down again.

L'articolo Anti-Tourism Backlash Reaching Crescendo in Barcelona as Elections Loom proviene da InsideOver.