Walter Finch
DOZENS of people were arrested during ongoing anti-government protests in Madrid last night as images indicate the protests have been infiltrated by the far-right.
Violent clashes saw 24 men detained by police and seven officers injured on the seventh night of protests.
Around 8,000 came together in the protests, with a number prominently seen making Nazi salutes.
Notorious Spanish neo-Nazi Ysabel Peralta was filmed being arrested earlier in the week after making such salutes and waving the flag of the Cruz de Borgoña, associated with Spanish imperialism.
Vox leader Santiago Abascal was also among the crowds that gathered in Ferraz last night to demonstrate in the vicinity of the PSOE headquarters.
He was warmly received with chants of ‘President!’, while anger was directed at the current president and former leader of the Catalan government, with shouts of ‘Sánchez traitor’ and ‘Puigdemont, to prison.’
The angry demonstrations were prompted by the signing of an agreement between the PSOE and Catalan independence party Junts to form a national government.
As part of the deal, Sanchez is set to offer amnesty to Puigdemont and the other leaders of the failed Catalan independence referendum in October 2017.
Chants of ‘another night, let’s go to Ferraz’ echoed as the march caused traffic disruptions between Plaza de Emilio Castelar and Plaza Colón for over an hour.
Initially, the protests proceeded peacefully without major incidents, unlike Tuesday when around 40 people were injured due to clashes with radical groups.
However, after 10pm, several protesters, some wearing masks, assaulted the police and the press, hurling glass bottles, firecrackers, and flares.
The provocateurs attempted to breach the police cordon surrounding the PSOE headquarters, forcing the police to attempt to quell the protests.
The crowds dispersed not long after.
In Barcelona, approximately 150 people demonstrated against the amnesty, starting at Plaza Artós and marching towards the Government Delegation of Catalonia.
Chants of ‘Puigdemont to prison,’ ‘they can’t deceive us, Catalonia is Spain,’ and ‘go get them,’ echoed through the streets.
Valencia saw 500 people rallying in front of the PSPV headquarters against the amnesty.
Slogans like ‘Socialists, terrorists’ rang out in the protests, attended by several Vox leaders, including Carlos Flores, Ignacio Gil Lázaro, and Juanma Badenas.
Similarly, in Seville, several hundred people gathered at the PSOE headquarters in Andalusia, with slogans such as ‘Puigdemont to prison’ and ‘Spain is not for sale, Spain defends itself.’
Attendees displayed signs with messages like ‘Pedro Sánchez traitor.’
READ MORE:
- An ‘unprecedented attack on Spanish democracy’: Leader of Spain’s conservative Popular Party slams Pedro Sanchez’s Catalan amnesty deal
- Was IRAN behind the assassination attempt of politician and founder of far-right Vox party in Spain?
- Spanish politician, 78, who helped found far-right Vox party is SHOT in the head in broad daylight in upmarket neighbourhood in Madrid
