The Barcelona City Council is developing a new strategy to stop the group dedicated to the most active illegal tourist accommodation in the city. The idea is to obtain prison sentences against those responsible. They are the Peruvian Swedes, the kings of clandestine boarding houses. This scheme basically rents large apartments to divide them into rooms and sublet them through platforms in a systematic way until the owners manage to evict them. For some time now, their supposed leaders have not been so calm.

Two weeks ago, the owner of the historic Soriano flower shop on Gaudí Avenue received the latest offer to leave and make way for another store crowded with souvenirs. His gladioli enjoy privileged views of the Sagrada Família temple. “And this time it really was a good offer – admits Xavier Soriano himself –. The truth is that I have been holding on for a few years because of my father and my grandfather, because my father and grandfather dedicated their lives to this flower shop, because my family has been here since 1940. But it has been a long time since I made a living with other businesses, because selling flowers here makes very little sense, because on this avenue there are only problems… I would have accepted this offer, I admit it, and let them start selling souvenirs, but…”.