Pedro Sánchez condemned the violence and broke his silence on demonstrations in Spain in favor of rapper Hasél

The head of the Spanish government, Pedro Sánchez, condemned this Friday “all forms of violence” breaking the silence he had observed since Tuesday, while new altercations were recorded, especially in Catalonia, motivated by the imprisonment of a rapper.

Barcelona and Girona, in Catalonia, native region of rapper Pablo Hasél, have concentrated the mobilization to claim his freedom.

“Violence is an attack on democracy. Consequently, the Spanish government will be faced with any kind of violence ”, affirmed the socialist leader, in an act in the region of Extremadura (west), breaking a silence criticized by the right-wing opposition.

Around 2,000 demonstrators, according to the press, asked again this Friday for “freedom” for Pablo Hasél in Barcelona, ​​and some threw bottles at the agents who cordoned off the headquarters of the national police in Barcelona, ​​in front of individuals with their the covered faces started smashing the windows of bank branches and shops in the city, which were looted, police said.

“It’s a shame, because the merchants have nothing to do with it”, he lamented the AFP Joan, a 61-year-old man who refused to give his last name.

In Girona, demonstrators attacked a bank branch and threw street furniture at the police.

Three people were arrested, one in Barcelona and two in Girona, police said.

In total, around 100 people have been arrested since Tuesday and several injured, including a 19-year-old girl who lost an eye in Barcelona, ​​possibly due to a rubber bullet from the security forces as she tried to throw a stone. on them.

The rapper’s conviction has put the Sánchez government at an impasse because some leaders of its partner Podemos, (radical left), have given their public support to the demonstrators.

“In a democracy in its own right, and the Spanish democracy is a democracy in its own right, the use of violence is inadmissible”Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said in a message to his coalition partner.

The chief of Podemos, Pablo Iglesias, who is also the second vice-president of the executive, assured last week that in Spain, there is no “total democracy”.

A new political mobilization is scheduled for Saturday in Madrid, where Wednesday’s altercations were described by conservative mayor José Luis Martínez Almeida as “urban guerrillas”.

In a few days, Pablo Hasél has become for many a symbol of freedom of expression in Spain after his sentence to nine months in prison for glorifying terrorism in certain tweets where he called King Juan Carlos I a “mafioso”, praising those involved in the attacks and launched severe charges against the police.

His case sparked a debate over freedom of expression in the country, which has already recorded a similar background as that of rapper Valtonyc, who fled to Belgium in 2018 to avoid going to jail.

The socialist executive has undertaken to review the penal code to prevent this type of crime from being punishable by prison terms.

“Spanish democracy has an outstanding task, which is to expand and improve freedom of expression”, Sánchez acknowledged in his speech.

(With information from AFP)

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