Puerta del Sol protest

Violence erupts in Puerta del Sol on Fiesta Nacional de España

/ Inside Madrid / By

Police were forced to pull apart and seperate rival factions in Puerta del Sol as self-proclaimed “anti fascists” and “nationalists” squared off in running battles around Puerta Del Sol this afternoon. With many people in Madrid celebrating Spain´s Fiesta Nacional de España and wearing Spanish flags walking through the city centre, a national holiday was turned into an excuse to indulge in running battles on Calle de Tetuan and Calle del Carmen . 

 

 

Met In Madrid Analysis: Spain at its worst 

 

Whilst most people were celebrating the national holiday in Madrid by taking advantage of its parks or museums, Spain´s heightened political atmosphere has inevitably led to radical groups feeding off each other. Having covered the housing protest in Puerta del Sol on this website interviewing people, it is hard now to say what meaningful purpose is being achieved when the main images have become running battles  and a seemingly never ending stream of influencers screeching “máxima difusión”. 

 

 

Any sense that this is about housing has been lost and probably was lost over a week ago. Likewise, seeing a group of young people LARPing as extremists whilst singing “Cara al Sol” is not really a genuine reflection of most voters who would be classified as right wing or conservative. But that is unlikely to stop this being the typecast.

 

Nor should Spain have its electoral cycle effectively hijacked by groups who seemingly have the least constructive elements to add to the national conversation. There is a Spain beyond Madrid and there is a Madrid beyond Sol but with the way modern news and videos work, its hard to see how much oxygen that will currently recieve.

 

 

However, this isn´t to say that these elements don’t have some hard-core ‘true believers’ on both sides and it should be concerning that it’s the youngest elements of Spain who are participating in these events. It’s hard to be disappointed as Spain’s political cycle devolves into a bastardised mix of US style video wars and winner takes all Latin American cults of the indivudual but today seeing a grown man point out a girl to be attacked for being on the ‘wrong side’ is perhaps the peak of human misery. 

 

 

Time to pack up in Puerta del Sol?

 

Tonight we are likely to see more violence and with an election ongoing it seems incredibly performative that the rest of Spain will see its issues (including housing) reduced to a few seconds as media scurry around looking for the next police siren.

 

Of course, what is likely to be ignored is that on issues such as immigration (where PSOE voters also favour tighter restrictions) or housing (where Vox voters polled had a majority in favour of restrictions on certain types of housing speculation) there’s far more broad agreement on certain key issues than you would suspect looking at Sol today. Spanish people should not be picked out for attack by ‘nationalist’ groups and nor should normal people be removing Spanish flags they were wearing in their own capital for fear of reprisals. 

 

After tonight, I think I am done with Puerta del Sol and its mutation. I just wish everyone in the Spanish media was done with it too.