The PSOE demands from the PP a resounding condemnation of the beating of Sánchez's doll and the popular ones ask to extend it to similar actions

The beating of a doll with the figure of Pedro Sánchez during the New Year's Eve celebration in the vicinity of Ferraz Street by protesters against the president has led to the first clash between PSOE and PP of the new year, which begins wrapped in the spiral of political tension. The Socialists accuse the Popular Party of not pronouncing an unmitigated condemnation of these events, considered a “hate crime” by the Government party, and of “feeding” this type of “violent actions” with their speech. From the Executive of Alberto Núñez Feijóo they show their rejection of such conduct, but at the same time they charge against the PSOE because its position of disapproval is not “the same in all cases.” The matter has also crept into the beginning of the pre-campaign for the Galician elections. The popular candidate and president of the Xunta, Alfonso Rueda, censures the tension, but “from all sides”, and equates it with the “walls” that Sánchez builds between Spaniards. Opposite, the socialist candidate, José Ramón Gómez Besteiro, compares his statements with “those who say we raped her because she was wearing a miniskirt.”

The PSOE spokesperson in Congress, Patxi López, confirmed this Tuesday that the party is studying the legal avenues for those responsible for the events to be brought to justice. But, along with the legal route, López has pointed out the political derivative and has demanded that the right-wing parties not “feed” these attitudes with their assertions from the tribune. “If you spend the day saying that Sánchez is a traitor, a dictator, that he is destroying democracy and the rule of law, there will be people who will say: go for them,” he stated in an interview on Cadena SER. “To reject is to condemn, not to encourage these actions. We ask the PP to abandon permanent hyperbole,” added the parliamentary spokesperson.

Leaders of the Government and the PSOE condemned this Monday, hours after the rally, the beating of the president, which occurred amid strong insults from the protesters. And they asked the PP to do the same. “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 thinks, Mr. [Alberto Núñez] Feijóo or the lady [Isabel Díaz] Ayuso”, claimed socialist sources. The Vox Revuelta youth brand was present at the protest, supported by about 300 people.

Neither the PP, nor its leader, nor the rest of the popular leaders spoke out during New Year's Day. Only the number two of the president of the Community of Madrid, Alfonso Serrano, expressed himself on X (former Twitter). The silence of the party has remained until this Tuesday morning, when the president of the Xunta, the popular Alfonso Rueda, was questioned about the issue in an interview on RNE. “I did not like. They are images that should not occur in any case and, therefore, tranquility, moderation and not tension, but everywhere. When I hear the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, talk about building walls between Spaniards, that is the equivalent of tension, division and all those things that should not happen,” Rueda said. His main opponent in the regional elections of 18-F is the socialist candidate José Manuel Besteiro, who shortly after responded to the popular candidate. “It reminds me of those who say we raped her because she was wearing a miniskirt. Here you cannot be lukewarm, you have to be hard, drastic, cutting and without any type of justification for the violence that is practiced against PSOE headquarters.”

The formula used by the president of the Xunta is similar to the one used by Feijóo when he condemned Santiago Abascal's words that “there will be a given moment when the people will want to hang” Sánchez by his feet. Feijóo rejected the statements of the Vox leader, although he immediately added that these statements were “in the same line as President Sánchez of building a wall in Spain, a wall of the two Spains.” For Patxi López, the strategy of adding “buts” to sentences adds fuel to the fire, justifies such acts and prevents them from being stopped. “Seeing how this escalation of verbal and physical violence is going, the question, if we don't stop it, is: What is going to be next? (…) This overacting of demonizing the political adversary should end. We tell the Popular Party to break up, there are no half measures, no buts. This is an attack on the democratic system itself,” the parliamentary spokesperson explained in another interview on TVE.

Sources from the PP leadership reacted hours later to the PSOE's accusations, condemning Ferraz's actions, but with a harsh tone against the socialists: “The same PSOE that has just said that it does not seem wrong on a criminal level for photos to be burned.” of the King or the flag of Spain is outraged by a piñata with the face of Pedro Sánchez. We do not like what happened that night and anything that does not fall within the limits of respect has our rejection and condemnation. At that rally, PP officials were also insulted extremely seriously,” these sources argue. And they ask themselves: “What does the PSOE think of the insults to Almeida by the same people who hit the piñata? And about the burning of dolls with the image of Feijóo in Galicia? And about the burning of images of the president of the PP on the Diada? Our position is the same in all cases. Not yours.”

On the 29th, the PSOE joined the proposal that the forces to its left and the independentists have long defended to decriminalize the crimes of insult to the Crown and outrage to the symbols of Spain. The socialists ratified in Congress their support for the consideration of a bill, promoted from the Senate by ERC and EH Bildu, which proposes the suppression of two articles and one section of another from the Penal Code to remove the King and his family that specific legal protection and stop considering actions such as burning the flag a crime.

Asked if this position clashes with that of judicially pursuing Ferraz's actions, Patxi López has denied that both positions are contradictory. “What we have opened is the debate on freedom of expression to close an agreement on where the limits of freedom of expression are,” he answered in SER. The parliamentary spokesperson has already clarified that he is against withdrawing the crime of glorifying terrorism and socialist sources were in the same terms regarding the Crown.

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