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There are slogans that pass without penalty or glory and others that capture such an idea that end up rooting or even (in networks) viral. It happened little over a yearwhen Thousands of Cantabrians They went out to protest against the Tourist From his community to the shout of “We do not want to be the Northern Ibiza!” Now the controversy returns to the same region before another threat that has been summarized in an equally powerful phrase: there are those who warn that one of its most famous sand, the strut, runs the risk of becoming “The Magaluf del Norte”.
The debate is served.
A place: El Puntal Beach. Cantabria has 284 kilometers of coast, but few places in that large coastal strip are as emblematic as the beach of The Puntalin Somo (Ribomontán to the sea), in the middle of Santander Bay. The space is included in the Natura 2000 Network Within the dunes of El Puntal and the Estario of Miera, which stands out for its 49 plant formations. Twenty of them are also priority and the area of special interest is distributed in the area.
A word: Megabotellón. Despite that environmental value and being a Protected spacethe sand becomes sometimes a great Botellodrome. People are in the area and the beach becomes an outdoor parties space. It is nothing new. It has happened relatively frequently during the summer months of recent years. In July 2020in full pandemic, the Civil Guard imposed dozens of complaints after evicting a bottle With hundreds of young people. And in August last year it happened Something similarwith a Macrobotellón that brought together thousands of young people who left in their path a lot of garbage.
And what happened? That the story It has been repeated again. A few weeks ago the sand was filled with thousands of young people who crowded the beach and left long tails to move by boat from Santander. It is not necessary to imagine it. The local press and The networks They spread images of a strut to the flag, a massive party that the mayor of Ribamontán to the sea, Francisco Asón, watched with impotence. “We are in contact with the Civil Guard because they have already warned us that this is the hecatombe,” I recognized To the EFE agency.
Party … And something else. The problem is not just saturation. Much of the controversy causes it what leaves behind: bags, cans, bottles … a large amount of garbage scattered on the sand, as a Cantabrist denunciation, which the next day visited the same beach to show in A video dirt. The recording speaks for itself. “The bottles in the strut begins to be unsustainable. We cannot look elsewhere while deteriorating one of the most beautiful and fragile environments of the bay,” Crows Daniel Fernández, socialist spokesman in Santander.
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“Bottle, noise and dirt”. In recent days the controversy has been climbing with reproaches of political parties, institutions and environmentalists. At the end of July several counselors of the Government of Cantabria and the mayor of Ribamontán to the sea sent A letter To the Government delegate to claim that it ends the “mass and illegal” concentrations, parties that, “fill with bottles, noise and dirt a protected space.” The situation seemed relax Last weekend, but that has not prevented more and more voices from asking for solutions.
One of the most overwhelming is that of Ecologists in Action, which warns of the situation of El Puntal, its “irreparable footprints” and the “risk” that the bottles represent. “A natural space turned into a shitwith bottles, plastics, food remains and butts dispersed by the sand “, emphasize The organization before crossing out “inadmissible” that the authorities allow the beach to become “a landfill.” “It is not a recreational space without norms, it is a public good of high environmental value whose conservation is a collective duty. It is not enough to send a cleaning team the next day. That does not repair the damage,” he remarks.
The northern Magaluf? Just like a year ago Voices were heard rejecting that Cantabria becomes “the North Ibiza”, in recent days those that compare the situation of El Puntal with MagalufMallorca beach wrapped in controversy for the videos that show The excesses with drugs or sex in public spaces. “They have turned a protected area into the Magaluf del Norte”, complaint Cantabrist “Hundreds of tourists come to our natural environments to use them as their private club and turn them into landfills.”
They are not the only ones that point in that direction. The PSOE He has claimed Measures to protect the coast “Ante Avalachas” such as El Puntal and speaks of “more than 4,000 people from Botón”. United Left too He has demanded that all administrations meet to “put an end to lack of control” in the Arenal, a measure that proposes to extend to other natural spaces in the region.
“Cantabria is fashionable”. Not all institutions share the tone or focus the focus on the same point. The regional president, María José Sáenz de Buruaga, considers “a serious irresponsibility to alert tourism phobia” and asks not to transmit “a distorted image” of what happens in the community.
“Cantabria is fashionable and lives a splendid and excellent moment. We are not the Northern Ibiza. Much less Magaluf,” the leader emphasizes in statements collected by eldiario.es. His executive claims to the Government Delegation that reinforces the controls. “It must act when there is a security problem.”
Images | Cantabrist 1 and 2 and Federico Jordá (Flickr)
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