The Government and the PSOE condemn the beating in Ferraz of a doll with the figure of Pedro Sánchez

The ultra protesters who, since the beginning of November – with an increasingly smaller presence – have gathered daily near the federal headquarters of the PSOE, on Ferraz Street in Madrid, to protest against the amnesty law and Pedro's government. Sánchez, they did not rest on New Year's Eve. However, on the last day of the year, to the prayers of the rosary, the Spanish flags with the constitutional shield cut out – or with the Franco emblem – and the insults against the head of the Executive, the gatherings added a new element. During the night of the grapes, they hung a piñata representing Sánchez from a traffic light and beat it in turns, amid shouts of “we must put an end to him”, “take justice from the people, Bolsheviks” or “red shit, cobra”. , which is what you deserve.” The National Police has summoned the organizer of the protest to take a statement in relation to what happened, police sources have informed the Efe agency.

Neither the Executive nor the PSOE have overlooked the new affront to the socialist leader and several ministers have clearly expressed their protest this Monday through social networks, while the party studies possible legal responses.

Thus, the first vice president and Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, has published on X (formerly Twitter) that these types of events derive from having encouraged the most extreme positions of the right. “When the extreme right is given air, this happens. A group of madmen seriously insulting the President of the Government at the gates of Ferraz and without [Alberto Núñez] Feijóo has done nothing to prevent it nor has he yet condemned it,” said Montero in reference to those gathered to protest and drink grapes just two kilometers from the usual scene of that ritual of passage, Puerta del Sol.

In response to Montero's tweet, the general secretary of the PP of the Community of Madrid, Alfonso Serrano, has assured that his party “has always distanced itself from these actions.” “While the PSOE handed over Pamplona to Bildu with, among other benefits, a councilor convicted of attacking two women. So lessons, María Jesús Montero, not one”, has replicated in X.

Socialist sources point out that the PSOE is studying “all legal avenues, which affect both the participants and the organizers and the presenters on the official channel of the event that was held last night on Ferraz Street. “We believe that what happened may be included in a hate crime.” The same sources point out that, “in any case, the facts, the comments made in the broadcast and everything as a whole” is “the reality” of what they have “been warning about for a long time.”

Another of the members of the Government who have protested the events of the last night of the year, Pilar Alegría, Minister of Education, Vocational Training and Sports and spokesperson for the Executive, accuses an escalation in the protests, which she blames for being imbued with hatred. despite being a minority: “They hate a lot, but they are few. They began by besieging the PSOE headquarters and now they are simulating the hanging of the President of the Government,” Alegría published on her X account. The minister has insisted that the aggressiveness must be stopped, and even more so at the beginning of 2024: “Enough is enough.” ! The vast majority of us congratulate each other on the new year and wish each other the best.”

The peculiar New Year's Eve celebration in front of Ferraz had been announced for some time. The organizers assured that there would be a stage, screen, grapes, public address system and enough money to pay the fines. In the previous days, Revuelta, a Vox youth brand, raised through a crowdfunding more than 16,000 euros to pay for the party (“accompany Ferraz's brave resistance”, they were advertised on networks) and possible sanctions in the event of arrests for possible altercations.

The protests began in November, before the inauguration of Pedro Sánchez and after learning of the pacts reached by the PSOE and the independence movement. On November 14, 11 days after the start of the demonstrations, the mayor of Madrid estimated the damage to street furniture in the Ferraz area and its surroundings at 27,000 euros, and accused it as “obvious” that the concentrations were “causing inconvenience.” to shops and restaurants”, with the subsequent complaints to the City Council, although he attributed them to consequences of the “exercise of a fundamental right.”

One of the events planned for New Year's Eve, the DJ session of blogger Isaac Parejo, known for reinterpreting the Mecano song One more year by One more gram It was not celebrated. The mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, prevented him from doing so, according to the blogger, although he did participate in the broadcast of the peculiar New Year's Eve party on YouTube. Parejo, who served as presenter through the internet, insulted Almeida, whom he denigrated by calling him a “fucking dwarf” and “son of a bitch.” He also referred to Pedro Sánchez, whom he assured that “you have to hate”: “That thing about us being spreaders of hate… of course you have to hate Pedro Sánchez!” And he expanded on his slander against the President of the Executive: “What Santiago Abascal said [presidente de Vox, que acudió durante los primeros días a las protestas] “It is a very good saying: any day the Spanish people will want to hang him by his feet.” Several digital media collaborated in the program, such as State of Alarm, OkDiario, La Gaceta (Vox communication organ), InfovloggerInforma Radio and Digital Journalist, inform Miguel González.

Other attendees blamed the first mayor of Madrid, from the PP, for ordering the blocking of vehicles that were supposedly transporting material, such as a giant screen, for the celebration and preventing their access to the street where the socialist federal headquarters is located. Revuelta then called for “the complete mobilization of the Madrid people.” The special program through the YouTube platform concluded with a “happy 1936 for the fucking Reds”, alluding to the year of the coup d'état by the national troops against the legitimate Government of the Second Republic.

This Monday, too through your X account, The Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Óscar Puente, has stressed that the demonstrations, which with very unequal and decreasing attendance – this December 31, increased to 300 participants, after many days in which they barely exceeded a hundred and far from 8,000 gathered the most successful night—have been happening in the streets near the socialist federal headquarters, they have already stopped “being funny,” and the PP has been blamed for being complacent with the protests, where insults to Pedro Sánchez have been the tone usual night after night. “The truth is that they stopped being funny a long time ago. The complacent attitudes of some PP leaders and their media outlets have given them wings,” stressed Puente, who has called for an end to this type of protests. “This cannot be consented to anymore,” he concluded. Hours later, he accused the mayor of Ataquines (Valladolid, 554 inhabitants), of the PP, of uploading to his social networks a photographic montage in which, after the message of “my best wishes for 2024”, two civil guards are seen carrying to the president of the Government. “This is what the mayor of Ataquines from the PP posted tonight on his social networks. The truth is that it is now impossible to distinguish them from Vox.”

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, has called to “condemn hatred, violence and intolerance” and has emphasized that hate speech “aims to delegitimize what is legitimate and dehumanize people” and that it poses “a threat to democracy,” by preceding hateful actions.

For Diana Morant, Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities, right-wing forces are directly inviting hatred. “The right and its leaders turn insults into slogans that invite hatred. From those muds come these sludges,” Morant has criticized, like her colleagues in the Executive, in your account at X.

The PSOE blames these types of events on the fact that “there are political parties and organizations of all kinds that are instilling hatred in Spanish society.” “We Democrats must put our foot on the wall,” they point out. “We know that Vox and its satellite organizations not only do not condemn, they endorse these types of acts, but we would like to know what the Popular Party, Mr. Feijóo or Mrs. [Isabel Díaz] Ayuso. We want to know what opinion a party that calls itself 'state' has. When you do not condemn, you are an accomplice,” PSOE sources conclude.

The socialist spokesperson in Congress, Patxi López, has also referred to the insults and the act of the beaten doll. “Once again, the intolerant seriously insult and threaten the President of the Government. Until when is the PP going to minimize these attacks? Spanish democracy cannot allow these violent attitudes,” he asked in X.

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