The group of this Saturday will join the proportional groups to protest during the culminating stage of the Tour of Spain. The discontent of the former for the environmental impact that the promotion of the world can have, adds to the discomfort of the latter by the war in Gaza and the participation of the Israel-Premier Tech team in the cycling competition. More than 1,500 Men of the Police, Civil Guard and UIP to avoid invasions such as those that have already occurred in previous cycling event stages. Similarly, a great deployment for the last stage is expected, with end in the center of Madrid. For that closing of the race, for now there has only been a small change in the route prior to the final circuit, eliminating the passage through Aravaca – due to the fall of a sponsor of the race, as sources of the organization explained to El País -, which will reduce the stage by about 5km. Before, the high mountain stage of this Saturday must culminate.
The group has encouraged, once again, to “denounce” what a “Zionist genocide” considers. For this, the group, which for months has coordinated protests in northern Madrid against the war in the strip, has published in X a map with the route that will follow the squad with the intention of flooding the tour of Palestine flags.
Good morning!
Today we go to the streets of our Sierra to denounce the Zionist genocide and support the Palestinian people.
We encourage you to go for the return route– The Sierra with Palestine (@SconPalestina)
The objective of the protesters is to cover most of the journey followed by the platoon. Thus, they have cited the first concentration at 11.00 in the gas station of the Valdequemada road to Robledo de Chavela, starting point of the stage. Subsequently, other groups will be planted in San Lorenzo El Escorial at 13.00, in Cercedilla at 15.30 and will finally come together in the port of Navacerrada, where the environmentalists will be waiting for them.
The authorities have announced a deployment of 1,100 police officers, 400 of the Civil Guard and, just in case, 50 units of the Police Intervention Units (UIP). On Sunday, a hundred more of the municipal police will reinforce the security device in the capital.
The president of the Community of Madrid, has referred to the incursion of proper groups in the road, in the prelude to the arrival of the platoon in Madrid. “They are trying to destroy the image of Spain to the world […] This does not go for Gaza, nor goes for humanity, nor does it go for the rights of absolutely no one, ”said the regional president this Friday, during the fourth debate of the state of the region. The words did not sit well with the spokeswoman of more Madrid in the Regional Assembly, who accuses the baroness of the Popular Party to“ side with the genocides ”.
Ecologists against the Vuelta in Madrid
“We want to repeat the protests of 2010 and 2012,” said Amai Varela (44 years old, Lugo) a day before the demonstration convened by Ecologists in Action in the port of Navacerada for “to cover the double step of the cyclists” of the Vuelta. The group has been asking for several weeks asking for a cut of the final section towards the ball of the world so that the stage culminates in the port of Navacerrada “as in previous years.”
The world’s ball, 2,265 meters above the sea, enjoys high environmental protection. “It belongs to areas A1 and A2, the most strictly protected from the Guadarrama National Park,” Varela recalled. In addition, the environment was declared a place of community importance (LIC), by integrating the, the main instrument for the conservation of the nature of the European Union.
The Community of Madrid, which has the competition to authorize this type of events in the Guadarrama National Park, has confirmed to El País the existence of a favorable environmental report, although it has refused to reveal more details of the text because, in the words of a spokesman of the Ministry of Environment, Agriculture and Interior, “technical reports are never published”.
The Ministry has limited itself to stating that “technicians have studied the impact on flora and fauna, considering that it will not have any environmental impact or risk for the ecosystems of the area. Therefore, all environmental conditions are met, as well as all the requirements of the Governing Plan for Use and Management (PRUG)”. But environmentalists reiterate that there is a non -compliance with the PRUG, specifically in Annex XII of the text that requires the cyclist return to begin and end in urban nuclei.
The march will start from two different places: some will leave from the House of Culture of Navacerrada and others will walk about two and a half hours from the Renfe station in Cercedilla to the port of Navacerrada, where the Government Delegation has authorized a demonstration between 16.00 and 18.00. Ecologists has issued a press release in which he advises the attendees to go “well prepared with water, food, good footwear and proper clothing.”
The conservation of the Sierra is not the only reason that will be made to the walk this Saturday: “We will also protest for the participation of the Israel team in the Cycling Tour,” they explained in the press release, in which they shave the organization of the return that the Israeli team has not vetoed, such as “as happened with the Russian team Gazprom”,, by the war in Ukraine.
