Video: Radical youth group stages anti-tourism protest in Palma restaurant

Around 20 youths affiliated with a radical left-wing group that supports Catalan independence burst into a restaurant in Palma de Mallorca on July 22 to protest what they view as the destructive effects of mass tourism on the Balearic island.

The members of Arran Pa?sos Catalans ¨C a group that operates throughout the parts of Spain where Catalan and its variants are spoken, including the Balearic Islands and the Valencia region ¨C set off firecrackers and threw confetti at the diners inside the restaurant, which is located in the pier across from the cathedral.

They¡¯re attacking the best kind of tourism in Mallorca, the kind that spends money Restaurant manager Carmen S¨¢nchez

This group has now posted a video it made of the incident. In it, activists can be seen carrying signs that read ¡°Tourism is killing Mallorca¡± and ¡°This is class warfare.¡± At one point, an activist is seen climbing aboard a yacht moored at the Moll Vell pier.

The incident took place at around 8.30pm on the outdoor patio of a restaurant called Mar de Nudos. There were around 70 diners there at the time.

¡°We had to change their plates and glasses. We had to face up to them and tell them to leave, noting that this was a private area,¡± says Carmen S¨¢nchez, the restaurant manager, recalling that the activists refused to leave. ¡°It was five to 10 minutes before the local police and port officers showed up. The youths started running as soon as they spotted them.¡±

¡°They¡¯re attacking the best kind of tourism in Mallorca, the kind that spends money,¡± laments S¨¢nchez. ¡°The tourists who come here are not like the ones who go to Magaluf. Maybe they should go protest there against mass tourism, the all-included packages and the low-cost prices.¡±

Activists carried signs reading ¡°Tourism is killing Mallorca¡± and ¡°This is class warfare¡±

On its Twitter account, Arran claims that its actions aim to ¡°curb the mass tourism that is destroying Mallorca and condemning the working classes of the Pa?sos Catalans to miserable living conditions.¡±

It also criticizes ¡°the precarious jobs and saturated roads¡± created by tourism, which is a top industry in Spain.

The regional head of the tourism department, Pilar Carbonell, said these kinds of acts are ¡°under no circumstances legitimate¡± and that the best way to defend people working in the tourism sector is ¡°to make progress on a system of redistribution of the profits made from this activity.¡±

The same youth group was behind a recent attack on a Barcelona city tour bus, which it covered in graffiti last week. At least seven hotels in Barcelona have recently been vandalized by left-wing groups claiming to be fighting what they say is excessive tourism in the region.

English version by Susana Urra.