The ultra-demonstrators who have been gathering daily since the beginning of November – with an increasingly smaller presence – near the federal headquarters of the PSOE on Ferraz Street in Madrid to protest against the amnesty law and the government of Pedro Sánchez, gave no sign of calm New Year's Eve. But on the last day of the year, the gatherings added a new element 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 branch. On the Night of the Grapes, they hung a piñata representing Sánchez from a traffic light and took turns hitting it while shouting, “We must put an end to him,” “Take justice from the people, Bolsheviks,” or “Red shit, Cobra “. This is what you deserve.” The National Police have asked the organizer of the protest to make a statement on the incident, police sources told Efe agency.
Neither the executive nor the PSOE have overlooked the new affront against the socialist leader and several ministers have clearly expressed their protest through social networks this Monday, while the party is studying possible legal responses.
The first vice president and finance minister, María Jesús Montero posted on X (formerly Twitter). that these types of events are due to the fact that they have promoted the most extreme positions of the right. “When the extreme right is given air, this is what happens. A group of crazy people who seriously insult the president of the government in front of and outside Ferraz [Alberto Núñez] Feijóo has done nothing to prevent this and he has not yet condemned it,” Montero said, referring to the people who gathered to protest and drink grapes just two kilometers from the usual site of this rite of passage, the Puerta del Sol were.
In response to Montero's tweet, the general secretary of the PP of the Community of Madrid, Alfonso Serrano, assured that his party “has always distanced itself from these actions.” “While the PSOE handed over Pamplona to Bildu, among other benefits, a city councilor was convicted of attacking two women. So lessons, María Jesús Montero, not one,” has replicated itself in X.
Socialist sources indicate that the PSOE is “examining all legal options affecting both the participants and the organizers and moderators on the official channel of the event that took place last night on Ferraz Street.” “We believe that “What happened could fall under a hate crime.” The same sources point out that “in any case, the facts, the comments in the program and everything as a whole” are “the reality” of what they have been afraid of “for a long time warned”.
Another member of the government who protested against the events of the last night of the year, Pilar Alegría, Minister of Education, Vocational Training and Sports and spokesperson for the executive branch, accuses an escalation of the protests, which she says is permeated with hatred. Although they are in the minority: “They hate many, but there are few.” They started with the siege of the PSOE headquarters and are now simulating the hanging of the government president,” Alegría published on her X account. The minister insisted that the aggressiveness must be stopped, 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.”
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They hate many, but they are few.
They began the siege of the PSOE headquarters and are now simulating the execution of the government president. That's enough!The vast majority of us congratulate each other on the New Year and wish each other the best.
— Pilar Alegría (@Pilar_Alegria) January 1, 2024
The strange New Year's Eve celebration in front of Ferraz had been announced for a long time. The organizers assured that there would be a stage, a screen, grapes, a sound system and enough money to pay the fines. Revuelta, a Vox youth brand, has raised more than 16,000 euros through crowdfunding in recent days to finance the party (“Join Ferraz's courageous resistance,” they advertised on the networks) and possible sanctions in the event of arrests for possible confrontations .
The protests began in November, before the inauguration of Pedro Sánchez and after learning of the agreements between the PSOE and the independence movement. On November 14, 11 days after the demonstrations began, the mayor of Madrid estimated the damage to street furniture in the Ferraz district and surrounding areas at 27,000 euros, accusing him of saying that the concentrations “obviously” “caused inconvenience.” to shops and restaurants”, with the subsequent complaints to the city council, although he attributed them to the consequences of “exercising a fundamental right”.
One of the events planned for New Year's Eve, the DJ session by blogger Isaac Parejo, known for reinterpreting Mecano's song Un Año Más for Un Gramo Más, did not take place. According to the blogger, the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, prevented him from doing so, even though he took part in the broadcast of the strange New Year's Eve party on YouTube. Parejo, who acted as moderator over the Internet, insulted Almeida, whom he denigrated, calling him a “fucking midget” and a “son of a bitch.” He also referred to Pedro Sánchez, to whom he assured that “you have to hate”: “That we spread hate… of course you have to hate Pedro Sánchez!” And he continued his insults against the President of the Executive: “What Santiago Abascal said [presidente de Vox, que acudió durante los primeros días a las protestas] “It's a very good saying: every day the Spanish people will want to hang him by his feet.” Several digital media outlets have collaborated on the program, including Estado de Alarma, OkDiario, La Gaceta (Vox's communications organ), Infovlogger, Informa Radio and Periodista Digital, they say Miguel Gonzalez.
Other participants accused the PP's first mayor of Madrid of ordering the blocking of vehicles supposedly transporting material such as a big screen for the celebration and denying them access to the street where the Socialist federal headquarters is located. Revuelta then called for “the full mobilization of the people of Madrid.” The special broadcast on the YouTube platform ended with “Happy 1936 for the damned Reds,” alluding to the year of the coup by the national troops against the legitimate government of the Second Republic.
Also this Monday via your X account, The Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Óscar Puente, has emphasized that the demonstrations, which had a very unequal and declining number of participants, increased – on December 31 – to 300 participants, after many days in which they barely exceeded a hundred and far from 8,000 participants gathered on the most successful evening – what happened in the streets near the Socialist Federal Headquarters, they have already stopped “being strange” and he has accused the PP of being complacent with the protests, where insults to Pedro Sánchez the usual night after that would have been night. “The truth is they stopped being funny a long time ago. “The complacent attitude of some PP leaders and their media has given them wings,” emphasized Puente, who called for an end to this type of protests. “This can no longer be agreed to,” he concluded. Hours later, he accused the mayor of Ataquines (Valladolid, 554 inhabitants), from the PP, of having uploaded on his social networks a photomontage in which two civil guards can be seen after the message “my best wishes for 2024” to the president of the government. “The mayor of Ataquines from the PP posted this on his social networks this evening. The truth is that it is now impossible to distinguish them from Vox.”
The Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares, called for “condemnation of hatred, violence and intolerance” and has stressed that hate speech “aims to delegitimize the legitimate and dehumanize people” and that it poses “a threat to democracy” by preceding hateful acts.
For Diana Morant, Minister for Science, Innovation and Universities, right-wing forces directly invite hatred. “The right and their leaders turn insults into slogans that incite hatred. “These sludges arise from these sludges,” criticized Morant, like his colleagues in the executive branch. 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 foment hatred in Spanish society”. “We Democrats have to put our foot on the wall,” they emphasize. “We know that Vox and its satellite organizations not only do not condemn but advocate these types of acts, but we would like to know what the People's Party, Mr. Feijóo or Ms…. [Isabel Díaz] Ayuso. We want to know what opinion a party that calls itself “state” has. If you do not condemn, you are an accomplice,” conclude PSOE sources.
The socialist speaker in Congress, Patxi López, also referred to the insults and the act of the beaten doll. “Once again, the intolerant are seriously insulting and threatening the President of the Government. Until when will the PP minimize these attacks? Spanish democracy cannot allow these violent attitudes,” was asked in X.
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