MADRID. In convulsed Europe, the day of violent protests spread from France to Barcelona, Spain. The looting and acts of vandalism left 128 people detained in this city. While, in Portugal, the police dismantled several camps set up by protesters in favor of the right to housing in Lisbon and Porto on Saturday night.
In videos shared on social networks, groups of young people, many of them dressed in black, are seen running through the streets of Barcelona and attacking businesses after having gathered in a large square in the center of the city, as part of a demonstration not declared to the authorities.
Among those detained there are 73 minors, Sílvia Catà, head of the Mossos d’Esquadra, the Catalan police, told the media 3CatInfo “We are preparing the reports to send them, on the one hand, to the Juvenile Prosecutor’s Office and, on the other hand, to the corresponding court,” and specified that only two detained people had “judicial records.”
Police analyze the profile of detainees
Fourteen Mossos agents and another from the Urban Police were “injured,” he added, calling these events “gratuitous violence.”
The police are analyzing the profile of those arrested in these riots, recorded when there is just over a month left for early general elections in Spain.
“They are totally disorganized people” summoned on social networks, said Catà, who specifically cited the TikTok platform.
Late on Saturday, the Mossos recommended that the population not go near the area near the central Plaza de Catalunya, where violent groups “burned containers, destroyed street furniture and threw stones at the police.”
“Violence has no place in Catalonia. Never,” reacted in X the regional president Salvador Illa, who asked that the rioters “pay” for their actions.
Change for Spain requested Núñez Fejióo
In the midst of the campaign for the November 29 elections, the leader of the right-wing opposition, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, called for “a change” for Spain “that is born at the polls, with freedom and respect.”
“Coexistence requires responsibility and not feeding those who put it at risk,” he added in X.
Santiago Abascal, leader of the Vox party, accused the “militias” of the president of the socialist government Pedro Sánchez of “destroying” everything they can, from Ceuta to Barcelona, in reference to the migration crisis that shook the Spanish enclave located in North Africa this summer.
Looking ahead to the elections, in which nearly 39 million Spaniards are called to participate, polls for now place the conservative Popular Party (PP) ahead of the socialists, but without an absolute majority, which could make Vox essential to allow the right to come to power.
The riots in Barcelona come a week after violent looting in France during a day of demonstrations marked by incidents.
This Saturday there were also protests in France that mostly passed peacefully, under reinforced security compared to October 17.
The French Ministry of the Interior reported this Sunday 1,314 arrests and 75 interventions for fires the day before, as well as 53 members of the security forces injured and 24 businesses looted.
A total of 126 of them remained in police custody, as reported this Sunday by the Police Prefecture of the French capital.
Portugal dismantles camps for the right to housing
The Portuguese police announced this Sunday the dismantling at night of several camps set up by protesters in favor of the right to housing in Lisbon and Porto.
Security forces intervened “early this morning to put an end to illegal encampments,” police wrote in a message posted on X.
“Once the dialogue came to an end, the operation resulted in 31 arrests for disobedience, 171 structures removed and 11 injured (8 civilians and 3 police officers),” he added.
Cited in the Portuguese press, the organizers of the movement mention 37 injuries after the intervention of the forces of order, particularly in Lisbon.
The protesters were inspired by the encampments for the right to housing organized in Spain, especially the one in the central Plaza de la Puerta del Sol in Madrid. Some Portuguese activists hope to organize a common movement at the level of the Iberian Peninsula.
