Environmentalists, social and neighborhood entities demonstrate in Barcelona against the expansion of El Prat airport

BarcelonaThousands of people demonstrated this Sunday in Barcelona against the future expansion of El Prat airport, in a mobilization called by Zeroport, the platform against the expansion, which has the support of 210 entities, social, neighborhood and environmental groups, as well as various personalities and academics and some political parties, such as Comuns, ERC or the CUP. Farmers from Baix Llobregat who traveled to Barcelona with their tractors also participated in the demonstration, as well as other residents of the area who arrived in the Catalan capital by bicycle. As always, there is a disparity in figures regarding participation: 30,000 people according to the organization, 5,500 according to the Urban Guard.

The demonstration is being held five years after the great mobilization against the airport expansion and just the week that the Spanish government approved the DORA III, the investment plan for Spanish airports that plans to allocate more than 1.7 billion euros to El Prat airport, basically for the improvement of terminals T1 and T2 and the parking lots. The plan, which runs until 2031, only plans to allocate about 192 million euros to the expansion, but without any planned work, only preliminary procedures, so the possible extension of the third runway would not begin, in case it goes ahead, until after 2032.

The march against the airport expansion began at the intersection of Passeig de Gràcia and Carrer Aragó and ended at Plaça Sant Jaume. With the slogan No to the expansion, not now nor ever, about 10 columns were organized to reach the demonstration on foot, by bicycle, metro and train from the neighborhoods of Barcelona and towns in the metropolitan area. "The governments of the Generalitat and the State and Aena are practicing climate denial and acting irresponsibly when they blindly defend the expansion of the airport," says Joan Manel del Llano, member of the Zeroport platform.

Zeroport considers that a new expansion of El Prat airport would have effects far beyond the "loss of biodiversity" and the "destruction of the Llobregat delta". "It would reinforce the economic model based on tourism in a saturated metropolitan area, and would further harm access to housing for people across the country, which would directly impact their economy and social cohesion," said Llano.

The expansion of El Prat continues to divide Catalan society, with opposition from environmental organizations due to the impact on the Delta's wetlands and organizations that want to control the influx of tourists to the Principality, while the majority of employers' associations and economic organizations are in favor. This same week, the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce and the Association of Economists of Catalonia have once again spoken out in favor of the expansion. The institution has pointed out that the air infrastructure is at its limit and that not expanding it "conditions the economy" of Catalonia, which depends "on these projects to maintain competitiveness and continue growing and progressing in a changing international context".

Division

The work is so controversial that it even divides the Spanish government. The Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente (socialist), made it clear at the presentation of the investment plan for the 2027-2031 period that if the European Union endorses the project in environmental terms, the expansion would be addressed in the next investment plan, the DORA IV. In contrast, the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun (Sumar), showed his opposition this same week to the "unleashed growth model" of El Prat airport, which will cause an increase in visitors "in a metropolitan area and a city of Barcelona that are already very strained by tourism". Also the leader of ERC, Oriol Junqueras, an investiture partner of the socialist government in the State, showed himself against the expansion on Thursday and demanded that the Spanish government not sell "smoke and not announce money that might not arrive later" after the presentation of the DORA III, which includes items for preparatory actions.

Minutes before the demonstration, the deputy to the presidency of ERC and MEP Diana Riba demanded that the project to expand the airport be stopped and defended the governance of the infrastructure from Catalonia. And the leader of Comuns in Parliament, Jéssica Albiach, asked the President of the Spanish government, Pedro Sánchez, to stand with the citizens and not to push forward the "extractivist" project of the Barcelona airport expansion. From the CUP, Member of Parliament Laure Vega described it as an "oxymoron" to try to turn Barcelona airport into the most sustainable in Europe by expanding it, as the President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, declared.

Mobilizations in Palma and Ibiza

This Sunday afternoon there have also been demonstrations against Aena's investment plans in Palma and Ibiza, organized by environmental platforms and very focused on protesting against the current tourism model. According to the organizers, there were 4,500 at the demonstration in Ibiza and 3,000 in Palma.

No more expansion, no more promotion has been the main slogan of the protest in Palma, which went from the Spanish Government Delegation in the Balearic Islands to the Consolat de Mar. In Ibiza, the protest took place on the S'Alamera promenade. Among the main demands of the protesters are the reduction in the number of flights, a brake on private aviation, and the approval of an airport co-management law. The spokesperson for the organizing platform in Palma, Pere Joan Femenia, has warned of an imminent climate and structural collapse.