Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Mallorca this afternoon to protest against “excessive tourism” which they blame for overwhelming the popular tourist island.
Protesters carrying banners with anti-tourism slogans and drums gathered in the Plaza de España, in the center of the capital, Palma de Mallorca.
Police officers armed with batons and wearing stab vests monitored the area as the demonstration began from riot-protected police vans at 7 p.m. local time.
Authorities closed the city’s main road as protesters marched through the old town. Onlookers cheered from the sidewalks as protesters shouted for “help.”
Spaniards are calling for fewer holiday flights, drastic measures against cruise ships and a reduction in the number of rental cars available under the slogan; ‘Mallorca is not for sale!’
The protesters left the march to confront the foreigners and tell them to “Go home” as they watched the demonstration pass by.
A woman in her 60s shouted: ‘Foreigners, go home, they are killing us! You’re not dropping bombs, but you’re killing us with real estate speculation.’
People hold a banner reading “Mallorca is not for sale”, as they take part in a protest against mass tourism and gentrification on the island.
Locals held signs reading “SOS Residents”, stating that their lives have been severely affected by tourism on the island.
Police officers in riot gear watch as large crowds of protesters, including children, march through the city.
Protesters carrying banners with anti-tourism slogans and playing drums gathered in the capital, Palma de Mallorca.
People from all walks of life gathered to call for a limit on the number of visitors, who they accuse of ruining the lives of locals by inflating property prices, causing traffic jams and increasing the cost of living.
Protesters include teachers, hotel workers, businessmen and retirees who have told how the large number of visitors has ruined the once idyllic Spanish sunspot, with one family forced to leave the island due to the rising cost of property.
Today’s march is the latest anti-tourism protest in Spanish territories, after demonstrations in the Canary Islands, Barcelona and neighboring Ibiza.
Mother-of-three Patri Vecina told MailOnline: ‘We have lived in the same rented house for ten years. But in December the owner told us that he was going to sell the property to foreigners and that we had to move.
‘I work in the hospitality industry and my husband is a builder. Us
We couldn’t afford the inflated property prices in Mallorca, so we were never able to buy our own house.
‘Now that we can no longer afford to live in Mallorca, we will move to Asturias, in the north of Spain.
“It was our dream to raise our children in Mallorca, but that cannot happen.”
Patri and her husband initially paid 500 pounds a month (500 euros) for the three-bedroom rural house in the center of the island. This rose to £690 per month (Euro 750) before the owner put the house up for sale.
The country house on the outskirts of the town of Sencelles is now for sale for £383,000 (€450,000).
Thousands of protesters took to the streets in Mallorca to demonstrate against the impact that ‘excessive tourism’ has had on the tourist island (file photo)
The protesters staged another protest this Friday against tourist overcrowding in Ibiza
Property prices in Mallorca have more than doubled in the last ten years, making the Balearic Islands the second most expensive region in Spain after Madrid.
In 2014, a typical 80 square meter house cost an average of £126,000 (€147,000), but has risen 208 percent to an average of £263,000 (€308,000), according to Spanish property website Fotocasa. While the national increase throughout Spain was 29 percent during the same period.
Rising property prices have been driven by foreign investors, many of whom have converted family homes into tourist rental accommodation, local activists say.
Laura Lau, from the El Banc de temps Sencelles pressure group who coordinated the demonstration, told MailOnline: ‘Houses and apartments that were family homes have been bought by foreign investors who rent them out to tourists and leave nothing to the local population. That is why property prices in Mallorca have reached unaffordable levels.
‘We need to make people aware of the housing problem in Mallorca that already affects us all.
‘Every day there is someone looking for a new home because their rent has increased or they are kicked out of their house because it has been put up for sale to foreigners.
‘Many of them are now leaving Mallorca because when they work and earn 1,500 euros a month it is not enough for them to pay for a house.
‘We are in a housing emergency. The government needs to regulate housing prices.
“There is no future for Mallorca if the island only benefits real estate speculators.”
The average salary in Mallorca is about 1,277 pounds (1,500 euros) per month or 15,324 pounds per year, although the island’s minimum wage is only 965 pounds (1,134 euros) per month or 11,580 pounds per year.
Professor Marga Gari said that her children will never be able to afford to buy their own house due to the increasing cost of living.
Marga, 50, told MailOnline: ‘There are simply too many tourists. My children will never be able to buy their own houses because foreigners have driven up property prices.
‘Everything is more expensive than it should be because of tourists: food in the market, clothes in the shops, everything.
‘Here in Palma you can barely walk through the streets due to the number of visitors.
‘We don’t blame the foreigners; We blame the government for allowing things to get so bad.
‘There need to be limits; limits on the number of planes, a limit on one cruise per day and a limit on the number of rental cars.
Protesters in Ibiza hold signs, including one that says “my lawyer lives in a rented car” during an anti-tourism demonstration on Friday.
Ms Gari says many items from Palma’s historic Mercat de l’Olivar, the central food market, are now out of reach of local people.
Her colleague Marta Cano, 40, says she had to move home due to the skyrocketing cost of accommodation in Palma, the island’s capital.
She told MailOnline: ‘The island is so crowded now that in summer it’s unbearable.
‘I can no longer afford to live in the center (of Palma) because tourists have raised prices.
‘There are traffic jams and weather, and the beaches are very crowded.
‘There are people walking around the city without shirts. This is not the environment I want my two-year-old daughter to grow up in.
‘In summer we leave the island. I can not stand it. We are going to the north of Spain where there are fewer people, where it is more relaxed. ‘
Businessman Marc Rey told how he is forced to live with his parents due to the cost of the property.
Marc, a 25-year-old financial consultant, told MailOnline: ‘I have a good job and am paid well, but I can’t afford to buy my own place. So I still live with my parents.
“I have nothing against foreigners, but there must be a balance between the needs of the local population and those of the visitors who come here.”
Retired banker Pedro Torres said tourists were not the only ones to blame for the island being overwhelmed.
He said: ‘In the last ten years some 200,000 people have moved to Mallorca. Not all of them are tourists, they are people from the continent and South America. But together they create a huge strain on our infrastructure.”
Nurse Catalina Estelrick added: ‘We must limit the number of tourists coming to Mallorca. We are being overwhelmed. “There are just too many people.”
