Strong hand of Pedro Sánchez with those who protest by …

The President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sanchez, promised this Friday to face “any type of violence”, after protesters will clash with police last night and committed excesses on a third night of protests over the controversial jail of a rapper.

“Violence is an attack on democracy. Therefore, the Spanish Government will be faced with any kind of violence”, said the socialist leader in reference to the protests of the rapper Pablo Hasel, who sparked tensions with their coalition partner, United We Can, some of whose leaders applauded the marches and criticized their crackdown.

The altercations erupted Tuesday night in Catalonia, hours after Hasel’s imprisonment, sentenced to nine months for tweets in which he insulted the monarchy and the police, and praised people involved in crimes of extremism. The mobilization has spread to other cities in the country such as Granada or Madrid, where a new demonstration is being prepared for tomorrow. For today, a strike and a student demonstration have been called in the region of Catalonia, the place of origin of the controversial rapper and where the protests were most intense.

In Barcelona, which has accumulated three nights of demonstrations, the police reported eight new arrests for “acts of vandalism and altercations”, in addition to the 51 people arrested since Tuesday in the region of Catalonia. Protesters threw blunt objects at police, barricaded them with burning containers and street furniture, and attacked the newsroom of a local newspaper. According to regional emergency services, six people were treated for injuries.

In ValenceIn eastern Spain, the protest demanding the rapper’s freedom also led to clashes between protesters and police, who charged into the crowd and fired rubber bullets. According to the national police, eight arrests were made and ten police officers were injured. Emergency services did not indicate the number of injured protesters.

The balance of detainees since Tuesday is close to a hundred people. Numerous injuries have also been recorded, including a young woman who lost her sight in one eye in Barcelona, ​​possibly due to a foam projectile fired by the police.

The case exposed disagreements within the Spanish government, between Sánchez’s Socialist Party and its left-wing minority partner United we can, who criticized the incarceration and applauded the protests.

This united Thursday, we can register with the Ministry of Justice a request for “total forgiveness” for Pablo Hase. He also requested the same measure for the rapper Valtònyc, “Exiled” in Belgium to avoid a trial for exaltation of terrorism and humiliation of the victims, threats and calumnies and serious insults to the Crown.

The two musicians “are unfairly convicted of crimes that violate the right to freedom of expression, in accordance with human rights standards,” the document said.

This week, Unidos Podemos presented a bill to the Spanish Congress that proposes to eliminate the crimes of insulting the Crown, against religious sentiments, insults to state institutions and the glorification of terrorism.