Sumar and ERC have demanded explanations this Monday from the Ministry of the Interior and the Government Delegation in the Valencian Community for the "brutal and disproportionate" police action the previous day in front of the Ministry of Education, after images were released showing a National Police officer pushing a protesting teacher to the ground.
The Compromís deputy, integrated into the Sumar group, Alberto Ibáñez, has argued that the intervention of the National Police and the government delegate, the socialist Pilar Bernabé, "overshadow a peaceful demonstration" which, he recalled, has been ongoing for 22 days, with teachers demanding "not only their better working and salary conditions, but the best public school for all Valencians".
The parliamentarian has submitted a series of questions in Congress to clarify how "responsibilities will be settled" for what he describes as "police brutality", after an officer was seen "treacherously hitting a retired teacher from behind who was only demanding better conditions in the classrooms, better working conditions for her colleagues and that our daughters be better cared for".
In these questions addressed to the Government, collected by Europa Press, he requests to know what formal communications the Government delegate or the deputy delegate of Valencia held between 9:00 PM and 1:30 AM last night to correct the "police disproportionality", whether the national police officer who injured a retired teacher that same afternoon was still participating in the charges, and how many National Police officers were part of the security detail on May 31st on Pío XII avenue in València at 8:00 PM, as well as their identifications.
Sumar's criticism of police action and unions
On the other hand, Enrique Santiago, deputy spokesperson for Sumar in Congress, published a message on social networks this Monday stating that this specific police intervention "is not congruent, nor opportune, nor proportional". "The agent's brutal action was not adequate, he did not negotiate and used disproportionate force, harming a retiree," he pointed out.
Santiago also stressed that the National Police needs "democratic unions committed to citizenship and professionalism." With these words, he responded to a message on 'X' from the Federal Police Union (UFP), which justified that said police action sought to prevent demonstrators from blocking streets and "avoid that first moment of invasion of public space."
"One must act quickly, with the same force but with decisiveness," argued the police union, in turn responding to a tweet from the government delegate in the Valencian Community, Pilar Bernabé, who had called what happened "unacceptable" and had promised an "exhaustive" investigation to determine all responsibilities.
ERC warns of "different yardsticks" in protests
ERC, for its part, has registered another series of questions with the Congress's Table addressed to the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, to demand explanations for the same police intervention against a demonstrator "without her offering or being able to offer resistance."
Its spokesperson, Gabriel Rufián, has warned that the events are of particular gravity because they "affect the exercise of a fundamental right such as the right to assembly and demonstration" and because they "occur in a context of social and union protest," in addition to denouncing "different yardsticks" in the treatment of demonstrators according to their political affiliation.
The republican deputy asks what information the government has about this police action, what measures it plans to take, whether the agent appearing in the recordings has been identified, or if an informational file has been opened. Likewise, he requests to know what the objective of the intervention operation was in front of the Ministry of Education, within the framework of the mobilizations of Valencian teachers after three weeks of indefinite strike and rallies in defense of public education.