Amy Mek
Protests have broken out across the European Union with Spain’s capital city of Madrid the latest to erupt in anger at the government’s Chinese coronavirus restrictions that are depriving them of their freedoms and crushing the local economy. The Spanish government has gone so far as to strip citizens of their democratic rights and ability to voice their dissent.
Following two months of one of the most freedom-violating lockdowns in Europe, Spain’s government is battling growing resistance to its handling of the crisis from fed-up residents. These economically destroyed residents have organized mass street demonstrations against the restrictions.
Citizens protesting in the Salamanca district of Madrid are demanding Spain’s Socialist Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, immediately resign and their liberties be immediately restored. Demonstrators waved Spanish flags, banged pots and pans, chanted,”Liberty! Liberty”, “Viva España!” and denounced the leftist government as communists seeking to ruin the country.
The President of the Community of Madrid Isabel Díaz Ayuso, from the conservative Popular Party, encouraged the protests, “I hope people will go out on the street” and speak our for their rights. According to Ayuso, many of them “will go bankrupt” at the cost of the government’s policies in managing the coronavirus. Meanwhile, Madrid Mayor José Luis Martínez Almeida, also of the Popular Party, said this week that “as long as [safety] conditions are maintained, everyone is free to voice their opinion.”
Watch the following RAIR Foundation USA exclusively translated video highlighting the protests and politicians speaking out in support of them:
In the Madrid Assembly on May 14, 2020, Ayuso slammed the government for taking advantage of the Chinese coronavirus and silencing dissenters who dared to challenge its totalitarian actions:
You are taking advantage of this situation in order to impose all types of barbarities, to attack freedom of business, decide whether sales, can be made or not — attempt in an inflexible manner to attack business owners, tell them how they must create or not create employment,….
Ayuso not only attacks the draconian restrictions, but also lashes out against the government for crushing the people’s ability to peacefully protest against these “dictatorial mandate measures.”
Watch Isabel Díaz Ayuso speech in the following RAIR exclusively translated video:
Ayuso has maintained that “attacking these neighbors directly when many of them are going to be ruined at the cost of their policies is at least a lack of respect for all and a shame.”
Meanwhile, despite the protests, Spain’s tone-deaf socialist Prime Minster announced he will extend the coronavirus state of emergency again, this time until late June. “The path that we are taking is the only one possible,” Sanchez told a news conference, saying he would ask parliament for an extension of about a month when most of the nation should then be returning to normality.
Transcript: Many thanks to Fousesquawk for the translations
VIDEO 1:
Commentator:
Protest is repeated in the neighborhood of Salamanca in Madrid
Protesters:
Liberty! Liberty!
Commentator:
Police presence is increased.
Sanchez get out It continues without respecting the recommended safety distance. The protests have transcended politics.
Politician: Pablo Echenique Robba –
…and if this had occurred in a workers’ neighborhood, at this time, all of the people there would have already been identified and fined.
Politician: Madrid Mayor José Luis Martínez Almeida
The right of protest by the citizens in terms that we are living in a democracy, and secondly, they will have to be adapted, of course, to the restrictions imposed under the state of emergency.
Politician: Isabel Díaz Ayuso
…You are hoping for the people to get off the street, because what will happen on Nunez de Balboa [Street] will look like a joke.
Politician: Iván Espinosa de los Monteros –
…it is possible to encourage protests with a large security distance; well, naturally, that is desirable.
Commentator:
The protests have extended to other areas of Madrid, such as Aravaca Resignation! —…Spanish…in the Plaza Nueva [New Square] next to City Hall
VIDEO: 2
You are taking advantage of families being locked up in their houses and not being able to freely leave to protest, although there is a short time in the afternoons on your own street. You are taking advantage of this situation in order to impose all types of barbarities, to attack freedom of business, decide whether sales, can be made or not — attempt in an inflexible manner to attack business owners, tell them how they must create or not create employment, and with ideas so absurd like directly attempting a 15-day quarantine for people who visit Spain.
Do tests, Do exams, analyze the population. Make creative policies of liberty, and not what you are doing. You are taking advantage of the greatest crisis in the recent history of Spain to impose a unique, dictatorial mandate, and you hope that the people leave the street, because what will happen on Nunez de Balboa [Street] will look like a joke.
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