“Can anyone imagine a gate in Times Square, Piccadilly Circus or Milan’s Duomo to segregate tourists?” New Year’s Eve to eat the grapes?”. The mayor of Seville, José Luis Sanz (PP), must have imagined it when considering charging to enjoy the Plaza de España. The “freedom” of Madrid has a price in Seville.
It’s not that there is an avalanche of people, or an excess of interest: the Junta de Andalucía did not grant the square the status of asset of cultural interest until last year… The city receives three million tourists per year; Madrid 9.8 million; Barcelona, ??8.2… It is far from the 30 million of Venice, which will charge five euros to the city’s flash visitors. The Venice toll is the full version of the tourist tax for Barcelona, ??Girona, Tarragona, Palma, Ibiza, Menorca…
Can you be against the tourist tax and in favor of charging for entry to a public space? The mayor justifies his idea: to finance the conservation of the square, built in 1929; maintain a 24-hour surveillance service and open a catering school. In the X network it does not leak.
The debate is not new. More than ten years ago, Barcelona started charging eight euros to enter Park Güell. Pay to enter a public park! The aim was to demass the area, it has rationalized visits… and dissuaded Barcelona residents, who have already abandoned free spaces such as the Rambla, Passeig de Gràcia, the Sagrada Família, the Port Olímpic… and more and more.
The Twitter sentiment is summed up in: “Privatizing Public Places”. The jurist @jpuria intervenes without many laws against the measure: “When the pagerola right comes to a city, it runs it like a company. Just think about charging for everything. They don’t like the idea of ??the public thing. They privatize the sidewalks for terraces and now they even charge for walking.”
Walking in Seville is no longer a wonder. “Let’s see if it’s my turn for the primitive and I can go there”, the networks laugh. @luzsmellado elevates the catastrophism: “We close public squares to outsiders. We put security on the turns and terraces cuquis and prohibitive for the use and enjoyment of those who can pay for them. Let’s all go to hell.”
The Andalusian PSOE is determined to prevent, from the Spanish Government, the “privatization” of the square. And @carlosmarmol_es opens another melon: “Already set, include the patio of the orange trees of the cathedral, which was always a public space until the Holy Mother Church decided to keep it and charge for access”. amen
