This Sunday’s protest in Palma against tourist overcrowding concluded with clashes between the National Police and a group of demonstrators, leaving at least seven injured.
This Sunday afternoon left images of tension in the centre of Palma. The protest against tourist overcrowding, which had been peaceful for hours, ended with police charges, rubber bullet fire, and at least seven people injured, according to health sources.
The events took place on Antoni Maura Avenue, when demonstrators, after reading the manifesto at Ses Voltes, attempted to move towards Parc de la Mar. There, they encountered a heavy deployment of the National Police, who had established a cordon at the entrance of the car park.
According to eyewitnesses, a small group of demonstrators began throwing objects, mainly plastic bottles, at the officers. This behaviour was condemned by other participants in the protest, who tried to maintain the peaceful nature of the gathering.
The police response was swift. Officers, equipped with shields and rubber bullet launchers, fired around twenty shots and charged with their batons against several individuals. One of them, a young man, was injured in the head with a bleeding wound that left him lying on the ground, later being attended to by an ambulance from SAMU 061.
The emergency service also assisted other demonstrators, although most had minor injuries. In total, sources from 061 reported at least seven people treated, none seriously.
For over an hour, clashes continued intermittently between a small group of demonstrators, some with their faces covered, and the National Police. At least three additional police charges were recorded at different points in the area.
Meanwhile, a larger group of attendees continued the protest peacefully. At one point, they sang 'La Balanguera', the anthem of Mallorca, in front of the police deployment, in a scene described by some as emotional.
The crowd gradually dispersed, and shortly before 11:00 PM, the area had almost cleared, four hours after the protest began.
The gathering, which attracted tens of thousands of people to the centre of Palma, is part of a cycle of protests that have been recurring in recent months in the Balearics against what the organisers consider unsustainable tourist saturation. The organising platform has already announced that it will continue the mobilisations.
From the Palma City Council, municipal sources indicated that they are awaiting police reports to assess the events, while the Government Delegation in the Balearics has refrained from commenting on the charges for the moment.
For the residents of Palma, these incidents represent a new episode of tension in a city that is experiencing the debate over the tourism model in a particularly intense manner. Antoni Maura Avenue, the scene of the disturbances, is one of the main thoroughfares in the centre and woke up this Monday with remnants of the protest, although cleaning services have already acted to restore normalcy.
This Sunday’s protest adds to others held in recent months in various parts of Mallorca, such as Calvià or Manacor, although the one in Palma has been the largest and the first to end with incidents of this severity.
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