The unprecedented cancellation of the final stage of Spain\u2019s Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a on Sunday has reverberated internationally, underscoring mass opposition to the genocide in Gaza. One of cycling\u2019s three \u201cGrand Tours\u201d alongside the Tour de France and the Giro d\u2019Italia, La Vuelta is a 3,100-kilometer (1,926-mile) race, watched by millions.<\/p>\n
People shout slogans and hold Palestinian flags while protesting during the twenty-first stage of La Vuelta cycling race from Alalpardo to Madrid, Spain, Sunday, Sept. 14, 2025. [AP Photo\/Andrea Comas]<\/p>\n
On Sunday afternoon, the final stage was cancelled as over 100,000 protesters took to the streets in Madrid; thousands flooded the cyclists\u2019 path as they entered Madrid for the final stretch of the race. Protesters knocked down barriers and marched through the course with banners reading \u201cBoycott Israel Genocide No,\u201d chanting \u201cBoycott, boycott, boycott Israel,\u201d \u201cFree Palestine,\u201d and \u201ctotal embargo.\u201d Police sprayed tear gas and charged the crowd.<\/p>\n
The Socialist Party (PSOE)\u2013Sumar coalition government, working with the right-wing Popular Party (PP) regional administration in Madrid, had mobilised over 2,000 police and emergency personnel for the event. The Civil Guard deployed 130 officers, nearly 100 vehicles and a helicopter, backed by a special force of over 400 agents. The National Police alone assigned 1,100 officers\u2014the largest operation since the 2022 NATO summit in Madrid<\/a>\u2014including police dogs, drones and helicopters. Reinforcements were brought from nearby cities.<\/p>\n Demonstrators targeted the race because of the participation of the Israel\u2013Premier Tech cycling team, owned by Israeli-Canadian billionaire Sylvan Adams, a vocal supporter of the Zionist state and personal friend of genocidal Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The hypocrisy of the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), cycling\u2019s world governing body, was glaring. It expelled Russian and Belarusian teams a month after the Ukraine war began. Riders from these countries can only compete individually, outside their national federations, stripped of their flags. Yet UCI let Israel-Premier Tech participate.<\/p>\n For weeks, demonstrators had interrupted stages of La Vuelta demanding Israel\u2019s expulsion, but on Sunday, thousands pulled down police barricades and forced the suspension of the Vuelta. The traditional sprint finish and podium ceremony were abandoned, as organisers fled the stage and riot police tried to disperse protesters with tear gas, stun grenades, and baton charges.<\/p>\n While the protests were formally called by the Pabloite Anticapitalistas party and the Solidarity Network Against the Occupation of Palestine (Rescop), which includes BDS, the scale of Sunday\u2019s mobilisation stunned and swamped the organizers.<\/p>\n Ra\u00fal Camargo, spokesperson for Anticapitalistas, admitted to France24<\/a>: \u201cWe knew that actions like this would take place because there are many people working in small groups, but it was not an action organised by those of us who have been involved in the protests from the beginning.\u201d V\u00edctor de la Fuente of Anticapitalistas admitted to El Pa\u00eds that while their goal had been to \u201cachieve a massive mobilisation,\u201d they only expected isolated \u201cdisruptive acts\u201d by individuals.<\/p>\n Both Anticapitalistas and Rescop admitted that the decisive roadblock which compelled the suspension of the Vuelta was a \u201cspontaneous\u201d and \u201cself-organised\u201d eruption, not the product of their planning. Camargo explained that Rescop\u2019s role was limited to calling a meeting, agreeing on slogans and meeting points, and circulating a poster on social media and WhatsApp. \u201cThat way thousands and thousands of people were called,\u201d he admitted. The work of mobilization, he said, was \u201cvery easy, because there is a lot of support right now in the Spanish state for demands of solidarity with Palestine.\u201d<\/p>\n The 100,000 people who took to the streets, according to official figures, streamed in not only from designated assembly points at Atocha, Cibeles and the Ermita de San Antonio de la Florida, but also from dozens of other locations, many of them improvised. Neighbourhood groups organised autonomously, coordinated via WhatsApp groups. H\u00e9ctor Grad of Rescop said that \u201cafterwards other collectives joined on their own, teachers, artists,\u201d until \u201cin the end there were more than 12 points where people were gathering, some unexpected.\u201d<\/p>\n Spanish Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez cynically attempted to posture as sympathetic to the protests, though his government had coordinated with the Madrid regional government to crush them. He said, \u201cSpain today shines as an example and as a source of pride, an example to an international community where it sees Spain taking a step forward in the defence of human rights.\u201d Yesterday, S\u00e1nchez demanded that Israel be excluded from international sports competitions. <\/p>\n This cynical rhetoric seeks to align the government with the immense popular anger at Israel\u2019s genocide and at the complicity of Washington, London, Berlin and Paris. In reality, the PSOE\u2013Sumar government pursued the same duplicitous manoeuvres as the other NATO powers.<\/p>\n In early September, S\u00e1nchez announced various measures after nearly two years of genocide, including a \u201clegal and permanent prohibition on buying and selling weapons, ammunition, and military equipment\u201d to Israel. Even this declaration was riddled with loopholes. It did not specify whether it covered dual-use products and technologies, or the spare parts required to maintain Israeli military equipment already in use by the Spanish armed forces. Nor did it address the more than 40 contracts awarded to Israeli arms companies and their subsidiaries.<\/p>\n The PSOE\u2013Sumar government was further exposed in July, when Eldiario.es revealed that from February and May 2025 it increased its imports of \u201carms and munitions\u201d from Israel, making it the EU\u2019s leading importer of Israeli weaponry. The Centre Del\u00e0s confirmed that, despite official claims of an embargo, Spanish exports of military equipment to Israel continued in both 2024 and 2025. Moreover, Spanish ports such as Algeciras and the US bases at Rota and Mor\u00f3n In Spain continue to facilitate Washington\u2019s resupply and intelligence operations for Israel\u2019s war machine.<\/p>\n