Police standoff with protesters in Valencia, Spain over education cuts.
A TENSE and heavy-handed encounter between police and student
marchers in Valencia this week sparked sympathetic protests across Spain
with rallies organised over several days in a surge of protest against
education cuts and corrupt politicians.
Police resorted to chasing students and schoolchildren around the
streets of Valencia on Monday, wielding batons in an effort to control
demonstrators throwing bottles. At least a dozen police officers were
amongst those injured in the affray as university students refused to
give ground in their protest against the allegedly corrupt regional
government measures put in place to balance the books “at the expense of the education budget.”
ARRESTS
Over the course of the week 43 schoolchildren and students were arrested, eight of whom are minors.
Mariano Rajoy’s PP government immediately issued a statement declaring
it would “not tolerate” the stand-off style of protests such as those
organised by the Indignado Movement last year and Valencia’s Chief of
Police Antonio Moreno labelled the protestors “The enemy” when defending
the violent actions of his troops in their efforts to bring the
protests under control.
Ana Navarrete, mother of 17-year-old Alumdena who was among those
arrested, angrily said: “They tore her from my arms, grabbed her by the
hair, threw her to the ground and then took her away!” Alumdena was
allegedly a bystander and nothing to do with the protest.
Several other onlookers claim to have been “attacked” by police while
they watched passively from the side lines. “I was just sitting quietly
and eating a sandwich,” said one 18-year-old girl, “and I was hit with a
baton!”
CRITICISM
The police have come under criticism from several independent
complainants including local journalists alleging that police pushed and
shoved them while they tried to report on a number of separate
incidents.
And a parent associations in Valencia (FAPA) demanded the resignation of
the government delegate in Valencia, Paula Sánchez de Leon, for
neglecting to put an end to “police barbarism” throughout the protests.
