BARCELONA, Spain (AP) – The imprisonment of a rap artist for his music and tweets praising terrorist violence and insulting the Spanish monarchy has this week put a powder keg of pent-up anger in the southern European country.
The arrest of Pablo Hasél has brought thousands of people to the streets for various reasons.
Under the banner of freedom of expression, many Spaniards strongly object to putting an artist behind bars for his lyrics and comments on social media. They demand that the left-wing government of Spain keep its promise and withhold the Public Safety Act passed by the previous Conservative government, which was used to prosecute Hasel and other artists.
Hazel’s imprisonment serving a nine-month sentence on Tuesday also drew a source of frustration among Spain’s youths, who have the highest unemployment rate in the European Union. Four out of every ten eligible workers under the age of 25 are out of work.
“I think what we are experiencing now with the affairs of Pablo Hasél (…) and other rappers politically detained by this regime is a brutal attack on freedom of speech,” said the 26-year-old student, Pablo Castilla, during a demonstration in Barcelona. “The protests are being brutally suppressed by the alleged progressive national government and the Catalan government.
“They are attacking our young people because we are showing our anger.”
For many, including older peaceful protesters, Hasél’s case also represents what they see as a heavy response from a state whose structure is in dire need of reform. This is even when Hasél of his public remarks, especially in messages sent on Twitter, expressed radical ideas, talked about the attack of politicians and defended the Grapo and ETA, two armed organizations that more than 1,000 people in Spain killed.
Hasél’s lyrics that strike at King Felipe VI and his father, King Emeritus Juan Carlos I, relate to a growing public debate about the future of Spain’s parliamentary monarchy. Unchallenged outlying circles from the left until the last decade, the royal house is plagued by financial scandal that Juan Carlos himself reached. Many Spaniards were surprised when the former monarch left Spain for the United Arab Emirates amid a court inquiry into his alleged fiscal irregularities.
In addition to shouting their support for Hazel, a crowd gathered in Madrid on Saturday chanted: “Where is the change? Where is the progress?” And “Juan Carlos de Borbón, woman maker and thief.”
The debate has caused tensions in the left-wing coalition government in Spain. While Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and his Socialist Party support the parliamentary monarchy that Spain has had since the end of Francisco Franco’s dictatorship in the 1970s, their minor partner, the offensive United We Can party, wants to get rid of the monarchy and has this week the support provides protest for Hazel despite their violent turn.
In the rapper’s home region of Catalonia, the unrest also comes after years of separatist politicians urging citizens to ignore or disregard court rulings that are unfavorable to their cause. Although the protests this week are lacking in calls for Catalonia’s independence or flags supporting the secession of the industrial area, the head of public safety for Barcelona’s city hall said many of the most violent offenders were also heavily involved in the 2019 riots. this followed the imprisonment of several separatist leaders.
“This is a varied, violent profile that we already know, as it is very similar to those that played a major role in the October 2019 incidents, so we know what the type is,” the Barcelona city councilor said. Albert Batlle, said.
Some leading pro-secessionist politicians have strongly criticized the handling of the protests by the Catalan police, who have made more than 35 arrests on Saturday night alone.
What started as peaceful, if angry, protests by thousands in Barcelona and other nearby towns, has escalated into ugly incidents, and it is being caused in the evening by a violent minority who want to destroy the property and struggle with the police.
“I think we need to distinguish between those who come here in support of the freedom of Pablo Hasél and those who do not,” said 19-year-old Joana Junca. ‘Street barriers to defend themselves are good. But those who go there just to have riot do not have my support. ‘
Mossos d’Esquadra police on Monday said 61 of the 75 people arrested in the Catalan capital since protests broke out on February 16 were 25 or younger, including 24 minors. Three out of four had Spanish nationality and 26 of them had previous attacks on authorities for public disturbance or theft.
Within the fragmented group of troublemakers, some want to plunder in a timely manner, Catalonia’s local interior minister Miquel Sàmper told local TV3 broadcaster on Sunday that ‘protests over freedom of expression’ had developed into ‘acts of pure vandalism’. . ”
Police point to small groups turning themselves into sports shops and other stores, while law enforcement officers are busy colliding and clearing barriers of burning garbage cans and metal barriers strewn across streets. Police describe what they call ‘looting’ by ‘some people taking advantage of the disorder and coverage offered by the large number of people.’
Then there are those, mostly teenage rioters, who are apparently motivated by an anarchist, anti-police-bent person trying to disrupt public order in any way possible. They work in fast-moving parcels, store windows and garbage bank offices. They choose their moments to stop running and target the police with coordinated throwing of stones and other objects. The police swung batons and vuurskuimkoeëls after they threw out onlustewaens to distribute it – and the chase continues.
Eleven police officers were injured Tuesday night when a crowd attacked a police station in the Catalan city of Vic.
“The attack on the station in Vic was a turning point,” Imma Viudes, spokesperson for the SAP-Fepol union for the Catalan police, told Spanish national radio. ‘We do not have the means to control this massage world. (…) Someone will have to put their fist down. ‘
On Sunday, on their way to throw bottles and coconuts at a police station in Barcelona, a group of mostly black-clad young people marched behind a banner that they had defiantly planted in front of a row of police vans.
It reads: “You have taught us that it is peaceful to be peaceful.”
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AP journalists Aritz Parra in Madrid and Renata Brito in Barcelona contributed to this report.