The protest scheduled for this Saturday to halt the destruction of Teide National Park has been postponed. According to the organizers, the Subdelegation of the Government in the Canary Islands has conditioned the holding of the gathering to a prior authorization from the Tenerife Cabildo. “The reason is not a direct prohibition, but a ploy,” the groups have stated.
In an official statement, the Delegation of the Government has justified that, as it is a protest in a National Park, “prior authorization from the competent body, in this case, the island Cabildo, is required.” “Just as the president prohibits access to Teide National Park due to inclement weather, or authorizes races or film shoots, the Tenerife Cabildo is the competent authority,” they argue.
The goal of the demonstration is to demand the conservation of Teide National Park and defend its values “against the prevalence of mass tourism and leisure activities carried out by the Cabildo.” In this line, environmentalists criticize that the final authorization depends on the administration against which the protest is directed “due to its disastrous management of the protected space.”
The organizing groups regret that the decision was communicated with little time margin to maneuver, which “materially prevents the event from taking place on the scheduled date.” They also denounce that their right to protest is being impeded and assure that the protest is postponed but not canceled.
Political battle
The suspension of the mobilization comes after the president of the island Cabildo, Rosa Dávila, said in a press conference that she would ask the Government Delegation to disallow it. “Teide is not a protest ground nor a set for their ideological battles,” she asserted.
The Government Delegation dismissed the request, clarifying that they could not prohibit a protest of this nature. Dávila reacted by calling the decision “barbaric” and lacking “common sense.” This Thursday, the Delegation stated that if the island corporation wanted to prohibit any activity for environmental reasons, “they could do so.” “It is the president of the Cabildo who has the final say,” they said.
The president of the Cabildo has used the protest for the protection of Teide as a political weapon to attack the Government of Spain, insisting that authorizing the gathering is another “example of the Executive’s disregard.” On the contrary, she has not commented on the Vuelta Ciclista a España 2026 passing precisely through the National Park.
On the other hand, the Delegation has lamented that Rosa Dávila “cast doubts on the regulation of the right to gather.” “We remind the president that from the Subdelegation of the Government in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, protests are not authorized, merely the predetermined right to hold them is regulated,” the press release states. They also insist that the Subdelegation “only has competence in matters of public safety” and none over environmental protection.
“We deeply regret the defiant tone towards the Government of Spain and the populism with which the president of the Cabildo acts, who boasts about state resources when convenient and takes every opportunity to criticize the Spanish Government president,” the Delegation’s statement concludes.
“Paradoxical and hypocritical”
The groups calling for the protest describe it as “paradoxical and deeply hypocritical” for the Cabildo to present the protest as an environmental threat while “allowing and promoting” mass races, film shoots, cycling tours, massive events, and commercial proposals in the National Park.
“Added to this is the lack of control and monitoring of illegal practices that occur daily in the Park: illegal camping, nocturnal quad routes, uncontrolled visits, damage to the natural and geological heritage, or irregular access to the Teide peak,” they add.
“The real threat to the Park’s conservation is not a symbolic, peaceful, and entirely controlled protest, but the management model imposed by the institutions, which treats Teide like an amusement park rather than a unique and fragile natural space with the highest protection category,” they conclude.
