Thousands of people—around 7,000, according to the Government Delegation—gathered again tonight in the vicinity of the national headquarters of the PSOE, in a new day of protests against the possible amnesty. After 10:00 p.m. the protest turned into a true pitched battle, after a group of neo-Nazis tried to break the police cordon. At that moment, the charges began, causing moments of great tension in the center of the capital. The night leaves 39 injured — 29 of them police officers — and six arrested.
The rally, called near the socialist headquarters, began at 8:00 p.m. as planned. Vox's parliamentary spokesperson, Pepa Millán, attended there, escorted by other far-right leaders. However, unlike previous nights, this time the protesters split into two.
On the one hand, those who remained in Ferraz. And on the other, the group convened by the leader of Desokupa, Daniel Esteve, and the ultra agitator – and habitual spreader of hoaxes – Alvise Pérez, who encouraged their followers to go to the Congress of Deputies, where they did not arrive due to the police deployment. . Of course, they cut off Gran Vía, causing traffic to collapse for more than an hour.
Under a banner that read “The Constitution destroys the nation,” the protesters held a sit-in in the Plaza de Neptuno. There they not only sang songs against the measure of grace for the independence movement, but the President of the Government, the Minister of the Interior, were insulted, even directed at the king: "Felipe, mason, defend your nation."
Unlike other days – when there were more families and elderly people – the demonstration was led by middle-aged adult men and a large number of young people. This group, after being evicted from Neptuno, returned to Ferraz.
Around 10:00 p.m. the pitched battle broke out. A group of radicals threw stones and bottles at the agents, who responded – rubber ball guns in hand – with the launch of smoke canisters to disperse the crowd. Once the protest was dissolved, some groups burned containers and street furniture.
The Samur-Civil Protection has treated 39 people, 29 of them police officers, after the riots. Most of them have been treated by health workers on site and four, one of them a police officer, have been transferred to hospital centers for breaches and in the case of the agent for a possible fracture in a hand. The Samur paramedics have seen gaps, eye irritation and bruises on the injured.
Those detained for public disorder are five men and one woman, according to police sources explaining to La Vanguardia. The same sources have not specified the crimes that the detainees are currently accused of.
"They will not break the PSOE", this has been the reaction of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, to the violent incidents in Ferraz. He affirms that he does not expect anything "from those who, by action or omission, support the siege of the socialist houses of the people." "Their silence portrays them."
For his part. The leader of the Popular Party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, demanded this Tuesday "respect and exemplarity" in the protests, while blaming Pedro Sánchez for causing "social unrest" among citizens. "Social unrest is the responsibility of Pedro Sánchez, but the protests must be based on the respect and exemplarity that the PSOE and its partners always lacked. We are not like them. Nor like the minority that acts the same."
Until the moment of the charges, the protest had no serious mishaps. A few minutes after 8:00 p.m., protesters began to receive messages on Telegram channels reporting a change of plans. The concentration made no sense in Ferraz in the face of a police cordon that left the socialist headquarters dozens of meters from the protesters. “To Congress,” they began to shout, when a group of hundreds of people invaded Gran Vía, causing all traffic to collapse.
On the way to Congress, chants of all kinds were heard, guided by a banner that read “The Constitution destroys the nation.” The demonstration was not only against the amnesty. Few families, almost no minors, nor the elderly - as Vox claimed -, if not adult men, issued death threats to the President of the Government or homophobic insults to the Minister of the Interior. There was also time to shout “Puigdemont to prison” or “Felipe, freemason, defend your nation.”
In the upper part of the Congress of Deputies, the fences did not protect the surroundings and agents of the National Police had to urgently deploy the fence, while the protesters approached the area. Finally, they sat in the Plaza de Neptuno, in front of the headquarters of national sovereignty on a day when political activity was in the Senate. There, before they were evicted by the Police, they shouted “Christian and non-Muslim Spain” or “That milkmaid [by the police van] to the border.” The thousands of people began their way back to the socialist headquarters, repeating the same slogans as on their way to a Gran Vía with traffic jammed.
