Category Archives: Barcelona

Dozens hurt as Catalonia independence protesters clash with police at Barcelona match

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  • Violence erupted as Barcelona played Real Madrid in La Liga
  • First incident since October jailing of Catalan separatist leaders

Masked protesters set bins on fire and threw rocks and glass bottles at police who responded with foam bullets in a street near Camp Nou stadium as Barcelona and Real Madrid faced off Wednesday in the first clásico of the season.

Forty-six people were lightly injured in the clashes, including eight who needed to be taken to hospital for extra care, local emergency services said. Five people were arrested, a police spokesman said.

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No more two-hour lunch breaks: the slow death of Spain’s menú del día

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Restaurants offering fixed-price three-course menús have been a cornerstone of the country’s urban life for decades, but tourism, shorter lunch breaks and gentrification have put them under threat. What will it take to fight back?

Food is at the heart of Spanish culture. From social life to business deals, everything revolves around food – above all, lunch. How did Mariano Rajoy, then prime minister, react last year when faced with an unprecedented vote of no confidence? He went to lunch. For eight hours.

The three-course menú del día has been the cornerstone of Spanish cuisine and social life for generations. Consequently, the restaurants serving these menús – generally low on aesthetics and high on value for money – have been a feature of the urban landscape. Now, though, their existence is threatened by a combination of rising rents, changing tastes and working hours, tourism and gentrification.

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Barcelona tourist industry counts cost of ‘lost week’ of rioting

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Trade reportedly falls 60% in some areas, with concern about disturbances’ long-term effect

Still reeling from the collapse of Thomas Cook, Spain’s tourist industry is now counting the cost of prolonged rioting in Barcelona, the nation’s most popular urban destination.

A week of violent and destructive disturbances over the jailing of Catalan political leaders left the city with a clean-up bill estimated at €3m but it is feared that the images of airport chaos, running battles with police and flaming barricades will cost the city a great deal more.

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Spanish police clash with thousands of Catalan protesters in Barcelona

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Police charge 10,000-strong crowd as pro-independence demonstration turns violent

Spanish police and militant elements in a thousands-strong crowd of protesters clashed in the streets of Barcelona close to police headquarters late on Saturday, as a pro-independence demonstration by a direct action group turned violent.

After a largely peaceful gathering of an estimated 350,000 pro-independence supporters jammed the centre of the city earlier in the day, a second crowd began to form around Barcelona’s police headquarters about 7.30pm. As the crowd grew to around 10,000, according to police estimates, TV footage showed protesters throwing bottles, balls and rubber bullets at officers.

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Tourist trade counts the cost as separatist riots blight Barcelona

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Hoteliers, restaurants and shops say takings fell up to 50% after the violence, and future bookings may be hit

Catalonia has been counting the political cost after protests swept across the region following the decision by Spain’s supreme court to impose heavy sentences on Catalan separatist leaders found guilty of sedition. Now it faces a new cost – a slump in the lucrative tourist business in its hugely popular capital, Barcelona.

The violent disturbances left the city with a clean-up bill estimated at €3m (£2.6m), but it is feared that the images of airport chaos, running battles with police and flaming barricades will cost a great deal more.

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Catalonia protests: key moments from a week of unrest – video

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The jailing of nine pro-independence Catalan leaders over their roles in the failed push for secession two years ago has sparked five nights of violent unrest in Barcelona and other areas of Catalonia. The region's president, Quim Torra, has called for talks with the Spanish government after a peaceful march and general strike was followed by further clashes between protesters and police

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Catalan president calls for talks with Spain’s government after unrest

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Quim Torra urges dialogue for democratic solution to tensions following fifth consecutive night of violence

Catalonia’s president, Quim Torra, has called for talks with the Spanish government after Friday’s huge, peaceful march held in protest at the jailing of nine pro-independence Catalan leaders was followed by a fifth consecutive night of violent unrest in Barcelona and others parts of the region.

Speaking on Saturday morning, Torra again condemned the violence of recent days, adding: “Violence has never been our flag.”

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Violence erupts after pro-Catalan general strike in Barcelona

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Protesters set fire to bins and chant ‘The streets will always be ours’ in fifth night of rioting

Catalonia suffered a fifth consecutive night of rioting on Friday after violence erupted in Barcelona following a peaceful demonstration attended by more than 500,000 people in protest at the heavy sentences handed down to Catalan politicians and activists.

There were disturbances and police charges on Via Laietana near the headquarters of the Spanish national police during Friday afternoon but, no sooner had the demonstration begun to disperse at 6.30pm than rioting broke out around Plaça Urquinaona in the city centre.

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‘It’s barbarity’: clashes in Barcelona after Catalan separatists sentenced – video

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Police and protesters clashed in Barcelona and other Catalonia towns on Tuesday over the jail sentences handed to nine Catalan separatist leaders. A peaceful candlelit protest outside the offices of the Spanish government in Barcelona escalated and the central government warned that violent demonstrations would be met with a ‘firm, proportional and united’ response

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Contractor, actor … protest leader? The Egyptian exile driving rare dissent

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Mohamed Ali is unlikely source of viral videos about corruption that have stirred resentment

Hundreds of protesters have taken to the streets across Egypt since Friday in a rare show of public dissent against Abdel-Fatah al-Sisi’s rule. But the call for demonstrations came from an unlikely source: a contractor and part-time actor living in exile in Barcelona, who has made bold corruption claims in a string of viral videos.

Mohamed Ali is a former military contractor who addresses Egyptians from his apartment, shirt often unbuttoned and cigarette in hand. His colloquial style of speech, sometimes swearing in an accent more working class than his own, is intended to present a man-of-the-people appeal. Ali has called for a million Egyptians to march on Friday.

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Barcelona’s car-free ‘superblocks’ could save hundreds of lives

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Report predicts radical scheme could cut air pollution by a quarter as other cities including Seattle prepare to follow suit

Barcelona could save hundreds of lives and cut air pollution by a quarter if it fully implements its radical superblocks scheme to reduce traffic, a new report claims.

A study carried out by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health calculates that the city could prevent 667 premature deaths every year if it created all 503 superblocks envisaged in its initial plan – up from the current six schemes.

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Sardine tins for the poor?: Barcelona’s shipping container homes

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Just a stone’s throw from La Rambla, the Spanish city is building 12 shipping container flats to help tackle its social housing crisis

Barcelona has begun installing its first shipping container homes just a stone’s throw from La Rambla, the famous thoroughfare in the city centre, in a bid to provide emergency housing for people who have been evicted or otherwise driven out of the neighbourhood by gentrification.

Work commenced last week on the 12 small apartments, which are being installed on Carrer Nou de Sant Francesc, a narrow street in the densely populated Ciutat Vella (“old city”) district.

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Barcelona police spare bathers’ blushes with clothing ‘robbery kits’

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Initiative particularly welcome among those who have clothes stolen on city’s nudist beaches

Police in Barcelona have handed out more than 100 emergency clothing kits to bathers who return from a swim to find everything they left on the beach has been stolen by the thieves who plague the city’s shoreline.

The “robbery kits”, made up of a T-shirt bearing the city council logo, a pair of shorts, flip-flops and a metro ticket, are particularly appreciated by swimmers on the city’s nudist beaches of Sant Sebastià and Mar Bella whom thieves have left exposed.

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Surge in violent crime in Barcelona prompts calls for legal reform

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Critics say many street thieves operate with impunity, leaving tourists particularly vulnerable

The Catalan government has called for tougher penalties for violent crimes after a surge in knife attacks and violent robberies in Barcelona.

Miquel Buch, the regional interior minister, said the law needed to be changed after it emerged that 90% of those charged with violence in recent months had been released on bail.

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Barcelona announces ‘drastic’ rickshaw cutback

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Estimates put total around 2,000 but vehicles remain in regulatory vacuum

Barcelona city council has announced it is to take action against the mostly unlicensed rickshaws that have proliferated on the city’s streets in recent years, which some estimates put as high as 2,000.

“Barcelona isn’t Bombay,” said Jaume Collboni, the deputy mayor. “We have cycle lanes that are for bicycles, pavements for pedestrians and we aspire to having a respectful and quality tourism model.”

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Outdoor smoking ban escalates war over Barcelona’s restaurant terraces

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Restaurateurs say ban on top of new regulations on outdoor space threatens their survival – while residents claim the city’s real issues are being ignored

Enjoying a refreshing drink or a cup of coffee on the sunlit terrace of a bar or restaurant is a cherished pastime in Barcelona – and a fundamental feature of Mediterranean life.

“Terraces are part of who we are and how we live,” says Roger Pallarols, president of the Barcelona restaurateurs association. “For many people, the terrace is like their living room, especially as most of us don’t live in large apartments. If France is Europe’s kitchen, Spain is its terrace.”

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Global heating: London to have climate similar to Barcelona by 2050

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Nearly 80% of cities to undergo dramatic and potentially disastrous changes, study finds

London will have a similar climate in three decades’ time to that of Barcelona today, according to research – but if that seems enticing, a warning: the change could be accompanied by severe drought.

Madrid will feel like present-day Marrakech by 2050, and Stockholm like Budapest, according to a report on the likely impacts of the climate crisis. Around the world, cities that are currently in temperate or cold zones in the northern hemisphere will resemble cities more than 600 miles (1,000km) closer to the equator, with damaging effects on health and infrastructure.

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Barcelona mayor promises crackdown on cruise ships

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Ada Colau will also oppose airport expansion to curb tourism and pollution

Barcelona’s mayor, Ada Colau, has pledged to restrict the number of cruise ships allowed to dock in the city and to oppose the expansion of the city’s airport, saying: “We don’t have infinite capacity.”

Colau said the limits would reduce pollution in the city, where air quality regularly exceeds World Health Organization limits for nitrogen oxide and PM10 particulates.

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Gaudí’s Sagrada Família wins a building permit – 137 years after work began

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Spanish architect’s masterpiece still unfinished but there’s now a chance its central towers will be completed

Property owners have a new yardstick for measuring their frustration over building permit requests that are lost in the labyrinth of local government bureaucracy.

Barcelona city hall has finally issued a work permit for the unfinished church designed by the architect Antoni Gaudí, 137 years after construction started on the Sagrada Família basilica.

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Barcelona port is worst in Europe for cruise ship air pollution

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City tops list of 50 European ports for both sulphur oxide and nitrogen oxide emissions

The port of Barcelona, a city already overwhelmed by mass tourism, has topped a list of 50 European ports for the amount of air pollution produced there by cruise ships, according to a report.

In 2017 cruise ships emitted 32.8 tonnes of sulphur oxide (SOx) in Barcelona, according to the research. Palma de Mallorca was the second most polluted, with 28 tonnes, followed by Venice with 27.5. Southampton, with 19.7 tonnes, was fifth on the list.

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