The beating on New Year's Eve of a doll with the figure of Pedro Sánchez near Ferraz will not, for the moment, entail consequences for the perpetrators of the events.
This was ruled this Friday by the Court of Instruction Number 26, which considers that the acts, within the daily ultra protests in the vicinity of the federal headquarters of the PSOE that had been taking place since November, do not constitute a hate crime and are protected For freedom of expression.
The judge's order considers that the protesters were participating in "a festive event", alludes to the fact that alcohol is usually drunk on the last night of the year and ensures that it is not possible to link the participants with any ideological group.
Socialist sources indicate that the party, which took the actions to the Prosecutor's Office, will appeal the judicial resolution that dismisses and archives the case, reports
José Marcos.
The events occurred during one of the daily protests that since November had gathered protesters near the federal headquarters of the PSOE on Ferraz Street.
To the broadsides against the amnesty law and the Government of Pedro Sánchez, that night was added a piñata representing Sánchez and which, once hung from a traffic light, was hit by several attendees in turns.
“We must put an end to him like this”, “take justice from the people, Bolsheviks” or “red shit, cobra, that's what you deserve”, shouted those who hit the piñata, in an act widely disseminated on social networks and through programs and live online broadcasts
.
The PSOE denounced days later that, once the puppet was destroyed, the attendees picked up the remains from the ground while saying "they are Sánchez's entrails."
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Is it a crime to beat a Sánchez doll?
That beating does not constitute a criminal offense, understands the judge who signs the order, Concepción Jerez, because the doll, which she describes as a “one-eyed man, with prominent ears and a long nose,” does not “reproduce the image of the President of the Government.” despite the fact that the order echoes that in the dissemination of the videos expressions such as “patriots
fostian
[sic] a piñata [by] Sánchez on New Year's Eve on Ferraz Street” were used.
In addition, the resolution refers to a police report in which it is stated that some of those present at the events – which the magistrate describes as “the most violent act carried out” – “uttered expressions such as 'One, two, three, hang him by his feet. ', 'go for Sánchez', 'Pedro Sánchez son of a bitch', 'Ferraz must be burned' and 'it's not a headquarters, it's a brothel'.
The judge further states that in any case, the European Court of Human Rights considers that “hanging a doll that represents a public figure or burning its image are protected by freedom of expression and are part of the democratic game of political criticism.” .
For Concepción Jerez "pursuing hate messages is justified when they are motivated by racial, xenophobic or anti-Semitic issues, but not when they are directed against an institution subject to political criticism, such as the executive branch."
For the judge, the beating occurred in “a festive atmosphere typical of that day [New Year's Eve] and probably after the consumption of alcoholic beverages” and to justify her statement about the supposedly jocular tone of the protest, she specifies that “in some of the images there may be "observing a woman dressed for a party."
In the demonstration on December 31, called and promoted days before through social networks, in addition to the insults against Sánchez and the PSOE, pre-constitutional flags were raised, as had occurred in numerous previous protests.
And one of the events organized for New Year's Eve in Ferraz was a program on YouTube in which DJ Isaac Parejo served as presenter and referred to the President of the Government, whom, he said, "you have to hate": "That thing "We are spreaders of hate... of course we have to hate Pedro Sánchez!"
The presenter expanded on his insults against the head of the Executive: “What Santiago Abascal [president of Vox, who attended the protests during the first days] said is very well said: any day the Spanish people will want to hang him by his feet.”
Several digital media collaborated in the program, such as Estado de Alarma,
OkDiario, La Gaceta
(Vox's communication organ),
Infovlogger
, Informa Radio and
Periodista Digital.
The order ensures that those who broadcast the beating videos cannot be related to "a specific ideology", that "the ideology of the attendees is unknown and whether it is common to them", and that "they are not linked with any group”, and “therefore it can hardly be considered that the behavior analyzed expresses hatred towards another group”.
He exonerates those who spread the images because he understands that doing so “could be due to the intention of reproducing the images for their originality or for any other reason.”
In the complaint presented by the PSOE, the party linked the demonstrations near its headquarters – which reached a peak of participation in the call on November 9, with 8,000 attendees, and in several of which violent acts were recorded – to Vox and to far-right formations such as Revuelta, Noviembre Nacional, Plataforma 711 and Asoma España.
On January 3, Antonio Martínez, the man who participated in organizing the event, told journalists that Revuelta, a youth group linked to Vox, had asked him to do “the favor” of organizing the event.
Martínez opened a collection, through the Gofundme website, which raised 20,078 euros in order to organize the event and whose declared beneficiary was the entity Asoma España.
The magistrate concludes in her presentation that the expressions emitted during the beating of the doll "should not be persecuted."
“Perhaps it is not well regarded from a civic point of view, and the language is vulgar and profane, and obviously they could be reprehensible from this perspective, but lack of education is not a crime.
It may be unpleasant for the person in question, or his supporters, but it is not a crime”, she specifies.
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The last of Ferraz in the twilight of “national November”: from the dream of storming La Moncloa to praying the rosary in the rain
In its complaint to the State Attorney General's Office, presented on January 5, the PSOE asked the Prosecutor's Office to begin an investigation to determine who was behind the protest, which it considers to be the "colophon" of a campaign "with violent overtones." to put the socialists “in the bullseye.”
In its letter of more than 50 pages, the political force directly pointed to Vox as the “common link” of all the “coordinated actions” in the last months of 2023 and listed a battery of possible crimes that would fit, according to its criteria, with the beating of the piñata with the image of the President of the Government: threats, insults, hate crime, public disorders, illegal demonstration or serious insults against the Chief Executive.
The State Attorney General's Office forwarded the PSOE complaint to the National Court Prosecutor's Office, which began a pre-procedural investigation in January.
That is to say, this body began to make inquiries to find out if there is sufficient evidence of a crime—before deciding whether it should file a complaint in court or file the case.
During these procedures, the public ministry found out on January 22 that a police report had already been sent to the Madrid courts, and that it was distributed to that of Judge Jerez, who opened her own case.
For this reason, the public prosecution closed its investigations.