The Spanish protests have been going on for a week.
MADRID, BRATISLAVA. The protest barricade of rapper Pablo Hasel at the University of Lleide in Catalonia and a police intervention last Tuesday have all just begun. Since then, protests have been held in the country for his release, but it is no longer just a resistance to his punishment for texts criticizing the former king and supporting terrorism.
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In the streets all over Spain, there is talk of coming to terms with the past of the far-right dictatorship or of long-standing unresolved economic problems, which were further accentuated by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Violence and clashes with security forces are added to this.
“We came to protest, but Hasel is just one of the reasons,” Laura, 40, who was heading for a demonstration in Barcelona on Friday, told El PaÃs. “We do not like the eviction of people, we support people without protection and we protest against the years of repression that we have tolerated. Hasel’s imprisonment is only the last straw for our cup of patience. “
Million damage
It was in Barcelona that the demonstrations were the most massive and caused the most damage. According to the police, about six thousand people took part in them, some of them breaking shop windows in the city center, causing damage worth millions of euros. They detained dozens of people.
Barcelona thus commemorated the year 2017, when large demonstrations took place during the independence referendum, and the year 2019, when people were arrested on the streets by the arrest of referendum organizers.
“Protesters are generally not doing anything wrong, the problem is other groups that act independently of them. It is also necessary to take into account how the police behave, “Núria and Francesc from Barcelona, ​​50, told El PaÃs. “There is a lot of dissatisfaction and inequality. Young people do not have a job and want to be heard. “
The laws that put Hasel behind bars go back to the reign of Francisco Franco, ie from 1939 to 1975. The dictator restored the monarchy, first installed himself at the head and then appointed Juan Carlos I as successor.
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