The chaos unleashed by street vendors reflects the failure of leniency in Catalonia.

Costa Daurada, in Tarragona, has become Catalonia's ground zero for the illegal street vending known as Top Manta. According to the latest report, between May and September 2024, authorities seized 43,673 counterfeit items, with an economic impact of 12 million euros. Most of the activity takes place in tourist destinations such as Salou and Cambrils, along the Tarragona coast.

The latest crackdown on Top Manta took place last week, precisely in Salou and its surroundings. The street vendors reacted violently, blocking streets and attacking the police with stones and objects. However, the worst was yet to come.

This Monday, a street vendor seriously stabbed a garbage collector in Cambrils, apparently because he was bothered by the worker cleaning leaves off the ground with a blower. This raises alarms about the Top Manta problem. The chaos unleashed in recent days shows that the street vendors have become strong in some towns, where they even challenge authority by confronting the police.

The serious part of all this is that days earlier, the radical left once again displayed its benevolence by supporting street vending. This happened at the first anti-racist race organized in Barcelona by Top Manta. 

Mafias and exploitation of people

Benevolence has dominated the public debate in Catalonia for years on issues such as squatting and illegal street vending. They defend these activities by invoking the vulnerability of certain groups. However, by doing so, they create a space of impunity for crime, ultimately legitimizing all kinds of criminal activity.

With squatting, it has been proven that it often serves as a gateway for drug trafficking in impoverished neighborhoods. This ends up being a focus of crime and coexistence conflicts. 

As for the street vendors, benevolence has also whitewashed an activity that harms shopkeepers and encourages the exploitation of people. As has been shown in recent days in Salou and Cambrils, this erodes authority and legitimizes crime. Not only minor crime, justified by necessity, but also more serious offenses.

Public aid and recognition

In Catalonia, the situation is especially serious because these groups have also received huge amounts of public money. In Barcelona, they received more than 1 million euros in aid during Ada Colau's years. Moreover, well-known figures and institutions have defended their cause, contributing to its normalization. 

In the case of Salou, legitimizing illegal street vending has fostered the creation of an ecosystem that even challenges legal authority. These groups have grown strong enough to believe they can operate by their own rules, outside the law. 

In the case of Cambrils, this sense of impunity has manifested itself in the most tragic way. The aggravating factor for the benevolent left is that this time, a worker has suffered the consequences. This is the result of years of legitimizing illegality while disregarding and even harming those who work honestly.

Failure of the multicultural experiment in Catalonia

This is also evidence of the failure of the cultural experiment that benevolence has fueled in Catalonia for years. In this sense, Top Manta is nothing more than proof that uncontrolled immigration leads to poverty and frustration. Many immigrants who arrive can't work and have to resort to illegal activities out of necessity.

The events of recent days have sparked criticism on social media. Many Catalans link these outbreaks to the failure of migration and public security policies in Catalonia. Some also warn about the power that the street vendors' group has acquired, being able to blackmail and challenge local governments and the police.

This also reflects on public and subsidized media, which featured the anti-racist race on their front pages. However, they've overlooked the street vendors' disturbances and the serious stabbing of a worker who's fighting for his life.