Spanish environmentalists are facing public criticism on the 31st (local time) by spraying paint on
Environmental Activist Arrests Spanish Wildfire Outrage by Spraying Paint on Cathedral Pillars…Government’s Criticism of Climate Response Damages Global Tourist Attractions, Ironical Protests
![Environmentalists who sprayed paint on the Sagrada Familia. [Photo = Group "Future Plant" X (X, old Twitter) Capture]](https://wimg.mk.co.kr/news/cms/202509/01/news-p.v1.20250901.ee04c84ec5be49f8b2aadadb007d4e96_P1.jpeg)
Spanish environmentalists are facing public criticism on the 31st (local time) by spraying paint on the pillars of Barcelona’s flagship Sagrada Familia designed by architect Antonio Gaudi.
They were arrested by police shortly after the crime, and the scene was filmed by a group on video and posted on their SNS account.
The group explained that it expressed anger at the devastation of large swaths of Spain this summer by wildfires.
It pointed out that the government’s actions on climate change, as well as the forest fire suppression process, are insufficient.
According to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), four people have been killed and an area of about 350,000 hectares (hectare) has been lost in wildfires in Spain over the past two weeks.
The Spanish government called the wildfires “one of the biggest environmental disasters the country has seen in recent years” and acknowledged their link to climate change.
Fortunately, as of the 30th, the emergency situation for forest fires has entered the end stage.
The group that staged the protest has staged dozens of similar protests so far, such as gluing activists’ hands to the frame of Spanish master Francisco Goya’s work at the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain’s capital, in 2022.
Sagrada Familia, which the group targeted this time, is Barcelona’s leading tourist attraction and has been under construction for more than 100 years since its construction began in 1882.
Construction will be completed next year, 144 years after the groundbreaking and the 100th anniversary of Gaudi’s death, with the completion of the 172.5m central ‘Jesus Christ Tower’.