About a week ago, due to the extremely poor handling of the virus pandemic by those Spanish Socialists and Communists in power, another anonymous call for an anti-government demonstration vent viral in Spain.
People were asked to protest against the manipulation of news, restriction of free speech, embezzlement of governmental funds destined to purchase surgical masks and tests, lack of respect for the diseased and completely absurd antivirus measures, as well as to demand that the administration steps down before it ruins Spain completely.
The plan was to congregate in Madrid’s Columbus Square at 7:30 PM on Saturday May 3rd, by car for safety reasons. Due to the relaxed, but still recommended social distancing (and also common sense), the participants were expected to drive their vehicles up and down the nearby Paseo de la Castellana, a central mayor avenue in the capital, showing Spanish flags.
Not surprisingly, and though the public prosecutor office confirmed that the state of alarm didn’t represent an obstacle if certain precautions were taken, the rally wasn’t authorized by the government agencies in charge. As a result, on the day that the protest was supposed to be hold, there were many police controls on that avenue. According to eyewitnesses, officers randomly stopped cars and motorcycles to check the identity of the drivers. No matter if you were on your way to work and able to prove it, or just doing some basic shopping for groceries, you were kindly reminded that under the current circumstances in Spain it’s not allowed to show a national flag in public!
No matter if you had it tied to your neck while driving your bike, or as a patriot just kept it in your car as always, you had a good chance of being flagged down, registered and probably fined later on-for no logical reason and without any legal basis. It’s well-known that the Spanish Left (like all Western Leftists) hates national symbols, but to treat someone as a lawbreaker because that person “dares” to keep the current national flag in a private car is really worrisome. Considering that just recently a high police officer openly admitted censorship, this seems to be another step in the wrong direction.
To be fair, I have to mention that a similar activity in the Andalusian city of Cádiz, a parade of cars on May 1st, planned by local labor unions to celebrate International Workers’ Day, at the end wasn’t authorized either. The difference is that any participants there definitely wouldn’t have been punished for images shown on the occasion.