Tension in Spain: wave of protests to free the rapper who wronged the king

Many cities in the Spanish state – Barcelona, ​​Lleida, Tarragona, Madrid, Valencia, Granada – have burned down in recent days. The demonstrations are called to support Pablo Hasel, the Catalan rapper put in prison for “apologia for terrorism”.

Hasel refused to go to jail voluntarily, and along with students and free speech activists, he locked himself in the presbytery of the University of Lleida, forcing the police to violate the university campus, which manifested the repression of the Spanish state. Hasel’s goal was more than achieved as it didn’t take long for it to be news in the international media.

The first protests took place on Tuesday evening in Catalonia, hours after police arrested the 32-year-old rapper to begin serving a nine-month prison sentence.

The protests were violent and even in the Catalan town of Vic, a regional police station was attacked. The protests spread to Madrid on Wednesday, where hundreds of protesters clashed with police in the central Puerta del Sol.

After several nights of altercations, there are believed to be more than 100 detainees in Spain. In Barcelona, ​​the clashes worsened after learning that a 19-year-old girl had lost her sight due to foam shots fired by the police. According to the same protocols of the security force, this type of projectile should never be fired in the upper part of the trunk.

Hasel entered prison for a crime of glorifying terrorism in comments on Twitter published between 2014 and 2016 that earned him a conviction in 2018.

He describes King Juan Carlos I as a “mafioso” and a “thief” and accuses the police of having killed and tortured migrants and demonstrators. In his case, the famous Gag law was applied, which allows judges to condemn artists for their words or citizens for their posts on the networks.

This law was established by the People’s Party in 2015. The newspaper The New York Times He defined it as one that “recalls the worst days of the Franco regime and does not take place in a democratic nation”. Psoe and Podemos promised to repeal this law while they were in opposition, but neither Pedro Sánchez – Spanish president since 2018 – nor Pablo Iglesias – vice president since 2020 – did so.

Freedom of speech

The Hasel case has sparked an intense debate on the precariousness of freedom of expression in Spain. Amnesty International called the sentence “disproportionate” and before the rapper entered prison some 200 prominent figures, including singer Joan Manuel Serrat, filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar and actor Javier Bardem signed a manifesto of support.

Spain has – according to the NGO Freemuse, a collaborating entity of the UN – the dubious honor of leading the country with the greatest number of artists condemned, more than Iran, China, Egypt, Turkey or Russia. In the case of Spain, artists convicted of “insults to the Crown” or “praise of terrorism”.

It goes without saying that the situation of artists and singers comes on top of the imprisonment of nine Catalan independence leaders for having organized the self-determination referendum of Catalonia in October 2017 and the more than three thousand Catalan citizens retaliated with penalties. imprisonment and fines. Such a reality logically obscures the external perception of Spain as a democratic country; And not without reason: Hasel was condemned to sing about King Emeritus Juan Carlos I the same things that the international media have published for many years.

Despite this, successive Spanish governments have historically always blocked any initiative by the Spanish Parliament that could lead to an investigation into actual corruption.

The current left-wing government has been none the less, and in January 2020 voted against the investigation into the alleged Saudi commission collection of King Juan Carlos I.

It is suspected that it was precisely this inaction, this institutional defense and this massive application of the gag law that probably sank the Spanish crown forever.

Sixth day of fury in Barcelona

The Catalan capital is the epicenter of the protests.

Barcelona were once again the epicenter for the sixth consecutive night of altercations stemming from the protests against the imprisonment of rapper Pablo Hasel for the crimes of excuse of terrorism and insults to the crown of Spain.

Several hundred people gathered yesterday afternoon at Sant station, the main one in the Catalan capital, where a strong police force had already been deployed.

From there, the demonstrators moved surrounded by the police in the streets of the city center, scene of the first clashes of a group of violent men who began to throw objects, such as stones, garbage bags and glass bottles, against the security forces.

The demonstration was called under the slogan “You have taught us that being peaceful is unnecessary”.

Barcelona city council removed 108 garbage containers hours before to prevent them from being used as barricades and set on fire, as happened on previous nights.

Many stores had protected themselves by closing their doors and windows to avoid what happened on Saturday in establishments in central Barcelona, ​​which in many cases were looted.

The protests, which began last Tuesday, have so far left 102 people detained, only one of whom entered prison, and 82 police officers injured, almost all of a minor nature.

After the strong riots and destruction on Saturday evening, the mayor of Barcelona, ​​Ada Colau, yesterday recalled that protesting is a right, but that “altercations are not the solution and are not justified”, because they do not harm ‘neighbors and markets. .

*Special