Overview
- Sant Jordi, which fills Catalonia with book and rose sales on Thursday, is one of the year’s biggest days for publishers and florists in both turnout and revenue.
- Barcelona’s Guardia Urbana will field 227 officers and 207 auxiliaries on Thursday with dedicated teams to shut unlicensed stalls, expanding last year’s device that seized 2,700 illegal roses.
- Authorities have reworked the map because of Ramblas construction, moving Ramblas florists to Plaça Catalunya and book stalls to Portal de l’Àngel and the cathedral area, and shifting the Aerobús stop to Plaça Universitat.
- The florists’ guild urges stricter limits on private sellers, arguing that €15 million of an estimated €25 million in rose sales flows outside the professional sector and noting most of the roughly 7 million roses are imported.
- Political tensions will surface as Junts’ youth wing plans to hand out up to 7,000 leaflets urging the government to revoke author Eduardo Mendoza’s Creu de Sant Jordi, echoing online petitions that have drawn thousands of signatures.