The protests promoted by the extreme right and anti-establishment groups against the restrictive measures imposed to stop the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic ended on Saturday night in riots in cities such as Madrid, Logroño, Malaga, the three Basque capitals or Santander .
About 60 people have been arrested and about thirty agents have been injured in altercations that, after those experienced in Burgos and Barcelona on Friday, have spread to other parts of the country.
The police charges, the throwing of objects and the burning of containers have been repeated in protests that were called mostly on social networks and that are raised against the curfew and the selective confinements with which the authorities intend to stop the expansion of the pandemic.
The protests against the restrictions have been backed by Vox and its leaders, who try to strike a difficult balance between justifying the protesters causing the riots - which they then blame on the far left and immigrant children - and supporting the police officers trying to suffocate them.
The violence has been censored by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, with a message on his official Twitter account.
Sánchez has defended that "the violent and irrational behavior of minority groups is intolerable" and "is not the way."
Only from responsibility, unity and sacrifice will we be able to defeat the pandemic that is devastating all countries.
Violent and irrational behavior by minority groups is intolerable.
It is not the way.
Thanks, once again, to the FCS for ensuring safety.
- Pedro Sánchez (@sanchezcastejon) October 31, 2020
In Madrid, 33 people were arrested after an illegal demonstration against the curfew.
The protesters overturned and burned some containers on Gran Vía and nearby roads, as well as damaging the shop windows and facades of some businesses - especially in banks.
Three national police officers were slightly injured, according to a spokesman for the Government Delegation in Madrid.
The mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez Almeida, has expressed his condemnation and has called for “peacefully” compliance with the curfew decreed by the Government.
"Besides being obligatory, it is loyal, prudent and supportive."
The police dissolve the protesters who were trying to block the Gran Vía in Madrid, on Saturday night.PHOTO: RODRIGO JIMÉNEZ / EFE |
VIDEO: ATLAS
In Logroño, the police detained seven young people between 15 and 24 years old and seven officers were injured in the city center in clashes between deniers and the police.
The demonstration had been called through social networks against the new restrictions in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Government Delegation reported that about 400 people gathered and that the clashes began shortly after eight in the afternoon.
A group of hooded men smashed the window of a fashion store and took an unknown number of articles of clothing with them.
The president of La Rioja, Concha Andreu, has criticized the events as "intolerable" and the City Council has indicated this Sunday that "Logroño wakes up sad and overwhelmed."
A demonstration against the measures taken to contain the coronavirus, in the Plaza de Sant Jaume in Barcelona, ended with charges in the center of the city.
People from the catering sector, the world of aesthetics, gyms and nightlife, among others, had gathered at the concentration, affected by the closure decreed by the Generalitat.
The Mossos detained at least 12 people, two of them minors, and the emergency medical system assisted another seven and at least fifteen policemen have been injured, none seriously, according to police sources.
Incidents in the protests held in Bilbao against the restrictions.PHOTO: EFE |
VIDEO: ATLAS
In the Basque Country, seven people have been arrested, four young people in the center of Bilbao and three in Arrasate.
In San Sebastián and Eibar, in Guipúzcoa, damages have been registered due to the burning of garbage containers.
In Vitoria, more than a hundred people gathered in the afternoon in an unauthorized denialist march.
The protesters, summoned through social networks, shouted, among other slogans: "We do not want muzzles, we are not animals", "terrorist journalists", "the left and the right are the same shit" and "freedom".
In Malaga, a hundred people gathered in the Huelin neighborhood, to the west of the city, after being summoned through social networks.
A police device made up of half a dozen National Police vans was assembled, although fires and races were also seen.