Received on 14.07.18:

Tarragona, July 11th, 2019.

Under the operational name of ‘”Operation Odium”, the Spanish National Police detained 5 locals over the allegations of hate crimes and incitement to violence. The reported event is the handout of some flyers where VOX’s political program was exposed.

From early in the morning, there had been detentions that were supposed to be subpoena for the next day, Friday 12th.

They have been taking people to their police station with different methods, such as searching for them in their own homes, identity theft, threats and illegal detentions on the street.

The answer was prompt, and a support rally for the detainees was called outside the police station. The people in custody had to undergo an unnecessary entry process to jail, as they might have been called for appearance either judicially, if it applies, or regularly, but, as usual for the repression, the Spanish police chose a more aggressive procedure, as well as a humiliating and vexatious treatment.

The alleged crime is the handout of flyers exposing the party’s radical nature, as well as its political program, which pursues a return to rough times when rights and freedom were persecuted and restricted. If we look at the energy and the effort that organization has been using for trying to stop us and, now, putting us into custody, we can see that this kind of action can be effective for countering the rise of the far right. It also shows that this kind of propaganda actions, like the distribution of informative flyers, undermines VOX’s attempts to provoke and, more generally, to throw fits and get a visibility as persecuted victims.

Backed by the Office of the State Prosecution’s recent bill in which the antifascist ideology is considered to be a cause for hate crimes, as well as by other police forces who provided data for these detentions, all this shows the deep anti-democratic nature of the society we live in. Besides, it adds up to another open lawsuit against members of our Platform for – again – an alleged hate crime, this time filed by a member of the neonazi group “Democràcia Nacional Joven”, for sticking informative manifestos about the dangerousness of fascism.

As Plataforma Antifeixista de Tarragona, we declare that these impairments to freedom of speech just can’t go on: our right to choose sides and take a stance against the program of one party or another shouldn’t be persecuted nor criminalized.

We’ll keep standing up to the far right everywhere they’ll go and we’ll expose their ties with the regime and their protectors relentlessly.

On our Twitter account, you will find infographics on what we are reporting. https://twitter.com/PlataformaTgn

Long live the antifascist struggle.

We’re all antifas.

*** Plataforma Antifeixista de Tarragona / Antifascist Platform of Tarragona ***

Full info (in Catalan): https://directa.cat/la-policia-nacional-espanyola-dete-cinc-veines-de-tarragona-per-repartir-fulls-volants-contra-vox/

In spanish media: https://www.lavanguardia.com/local/tarragona/20190711/463418247133/detenidos-delito-odio-repartir-octavillas-vox-tarragona.html Cinco detenidos por un delito de odio por repartir octavillas contra VOX