The far-right protests next to the PSOE headquarters went up a notch on New Year’s Eve. The protesters hung a doll representing Pedro Sánchez, which some of the participants, cheered on by the attendees while insulting the president, beat it like a piñata, until it broke.
The PSOE believes that these events may constitute a hate crime, and on Monday asked the PP to condemn them so as not to be “complicit” in the “violent enemies.”
This Tuesday, sources from the leadership of the Popular Party have responded, showing their rejection and “condemnation” of these behaviors, although they immediately throw the ball into the PSOE’s court and demand that they also condemn the burning of photos of the King or Alberto Núñez Feijóo.
“The same PSOE that has just said that it does not seem wrong on a criminal level that photos of the King or the flag of Spain are burned is outraged by a piñata with the face of Pedro Sánchez,” they argue in Genoa. “We do not like what happened that night and anything that does not fall within the limits of respect has our rejection and condemnation,” they add.
“At that rally, PP officials” such as the mayor of Madrid were also extremely seriously insulted. “What does the PSOE think of the insults to Almeida by the same people who hit the piñata? And of the burning of dolls with the image of Feijóo in Galicia? And of the burning of images of the president of the PP on the Diada “, point out the popular ones. PSOE sources respond that they already condemned “outright” the insults to Almeida on Monday.
“Once again the PP falls short, and closer to the ultras than to the democrats,” they lament in Ferraz. The first vice president of the Government, María Jesús Montero, has tweeted that “the PP has linked its fate to that of the extreme right and is no longer incapable of condemning repulsive acts such as those that occurred in Ferraz, where the President was seriously insulted. of the government”.
“Our position is the same in all cases. Not yours,” they conclude in Genoa to accuse the PSOE of double standards.
The president of the Socialists should ask for and show “the same forcefulness” in the sentences when those affected are “others”, such as the PP.
“I didn’t like it, of course. They are images that should not be produced in any case,” Rueda admitted, in an interview with RNE, collected by Europa Press, in which he appealed to “tranquility, moderation and not tension”. “But everywhere,” he stressed, critical of “when you hear Sánchez talk about building walls between Spaniards.” “That,” he has warned, “is the equivalent of tension, division and all those things that should not happen.”
“Therefore, I did not like those images and what I also ask for is the same forcefulness, when they occur on one side or the other. I, conclusively, say that this is not right, these attitudes should not occur,” he said. emphasized, to insist that, in any case, when they occur and “even if in less intensity or with less repercussion” or affect the popular they should be condemned “with the same forcefulness.”
The socialist candidate for the Presidency of the Xunta, José Ramón Gómez Besteiro, has stated that “you cannot be lukewarm” when rejecting acts such as those that occurred in the Ferraz protest, in front of the PSOE headquarters, in which a doll was beaten. who represented the president of the Government.
“It reminds me of those who say we raped her because she was wearing a miniskirt,” he stated, in response to questions from journalists, at an event in A Coruña, when questioned about Rueda’s statements, who also assured that the socialists must show “the “same forcefulness” in the sentences when those affected are “others” like the PP.