ANOTHER two international estate agencies have been vandalised in Mallorca ahead of a huge anti-tourism protest this weekend.
Both Palma property firms were hit with fresh graffiti in barely 24 hours, on July 22 and July 23, taking the number of targeted agencies to seven since May.
Both newly-vandalised agencies were daubed with messages referencing the protest.
La Posesion Mallorquina, on the corner of Calle Llibertat and Calle Contesti, was hit with culpables and fuera especuladores on July 23 — Spanish for ‘guilty’ and ‘speculators out’.
The Calle Veri agency, hit a day earlier, specialises in selling multi-million-euro properties to foreign buyers.
Its facade was sprayed with ’26-J’, the date of the march, while arruix — Catalan and Mallorquin for ‘get lost’ — and todos a la calle, Spanish for ‘everyone take to the streets’, were written on the pavement outside.
The latest graffiti follows a coordinated attack on five foreign-owned estate agents in Santa Maria del Cami, an inland market town on the Palma-Inca road, on May 31.
Engel & Volkers, Olive Island Properties, The Agency Mallorca, Imperial Properties and Christies were all hit at around 2.30am.
Engel & Volkers suffered the worst damage.
Its premises sit inside the Convent dels Minims, a building with legal protection as a site of cultural interest — meaning any damage to it carries a heavier legal charge than ordinary vandalism.
Vandals smashed the agency’s window and daubed its facade with ‘Guilty!’ and ‘Guiris out!’, a derogatory term for foreign tourists and expats.
Two women linked to Menys Turisme, Mes Vida (Less Tourism, More Life) were arrested over the May 31 attack on July 15.
Both were charged with property damage and an offence against historical heritage, the charge that applies because of the Convent dels Minims’ protected status.
Police seized computer equipment from their homes, and both women were released after appearing in court the same day.
Court proceedings against the two women have been opened for a delito de danos — a property damage offence — rather than the criminal organisation allegation a separate complaint against the platform sought on July 9.
READ MORE: Popular Mallorca town swamped with tourists who now outnumber residents
It comes as more than 50 organisations are now behind Sunday’s demonstration, which organisers have vowed will bring Palma to a standstill.
A previous Palma demonstration last month drew an estimated 15,000 people onto the city’s streets.
When that march ended, around 100 activists surrounded tourists at a restaurant in the city centre before police moved in to disperse them.
The year before that, organisers had to publicly apologise after holidaymakers eating in a Palma square were booed and jeered.
Anti-tourist sentiment has hardened across Spain’s island territories over the past two years, with activists in the Canary Islands gluing shut key boxes used by holiday-let hosts.
This year’s Mallorca slogan is ‘Mallorca is at its limit’, and Sunday’s march has been timed to build pressure before an August 12 total solar eclipse expected to draw thousands more visitors to the islands.
“We can’t cope with more tourists,” platform spokesman David Comas said, when the march was first announced in June.
The graffiti campaign follows a document titled ‘Hazlo tu tambien’ — Spanish for ‘Do it yourself too’ — which circulated online and urged supporters to spray-paint facades and disable the locks of holiday lets and businesses branded ‘gentrifiers’.
The document was signed by Menys Turisme, Mes Vida and Arran Mallorca, a separate pro-independence youth group.
Government spokesman Antoni Costa branded it ‘unacceptable’.
“Blocking locks and painting graffiti is unacceptable,” he said, adding that vandalism against businesses and tourists would never be tolerated.
Most entities within Menys Turisme, Mes Vida have since publicly distanced themselves from the document.
Platform spokesman Dani Comas defended it regardless, telling IB3 radio that cleaning graffiti off a shop window ‘costs nothing’ compared with the ‘structural violence’ of the tourism and housing model.
Spain’s Policia Nacional has opened an inquiry into whether the document incites hatred or crime, and is trying to identify who wrote it.
The Consell de Mallorca, the island’s governing body, has declared zero tolerance for vandalism or intimidation ahead of Sunday’s march.
No arrests have been made over either of this week’s attacks, with organisers expecting Sunday to be the biggest march yet.
Click here to read more Mallorca News from The Olive Press.
