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Malaga plans demonstration against the city tourism policies
The Costa del Sol protestors are demanding decent housing for locals and a limit on holiday lets
April 20 demonstrations in the Canary Islands
In recent weeks, public buildings in Málaga have become awash with anti-tourism sentiments, with frustrated locals urging holidaymakers to “go home.” Tourist apartments have also been vandalised with stickers reading “stinks of tourists”, “go f***ing home” and “this was my home”.
Many residents claim they are being priced out of the housing market as more and more long-term tenants are turfed out of their homes to make way for tourists, and this in turn is pushing up the price of renting in general.
As a result, local groups have called a street march on June 29 to urge the government to change its tourism policies under the slogan “For decent housing and against the processes of touristification and precariousness of life”.
According to one Malaga bar owner, Dani Drunko, the beloved city has become virtually “unliveable.”
“Málaga city centre has been going downhill for a long time,” he said.
“If something in my bar breaks, I don’t have a hardware store to buy anything, the tourists don’t need to buy screws.”
Sympathising with the growing discontent among locals, politician Dani Pérez wrote on social media: “You walk the streets of Málaga and it is practically impossible to find a residential building that does not have a lockbox [for tourist rentals].”
He accused the city’s mayor, Paco de la Torre, of “not lifting a finger for the people of Málaga” and “kicking them out from the city where they were born”.
The Costa del Sol is just the latest in a long line of communities fed up with what they perceive as holidaymakers being prioritised over the wellbeing of year-round residents by the government.
On April 20, more than 80,000 protestors took to the streets all across the Canary Islands to demand changes to its existing tourism model.
These demonstrations were organised under the banner ‘Canarias tiene un límite’ (‘The Canaries have a limit’).
Image: Podemos Las Palmas GC
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