The general secretary of Podemos, Ione Belarra, has sent a written document to the chairwoman of Congress, the Socialist Francina Armengol, in which she requests her protection as an MP by considering herself a “victim and witness” of “police harassment” during the general strike day of November 11. “There were unjustified assaults and arbitrary identifications,” she states in her written document.
Belarra appears among the people identified this Wednesday while participating in an information picket in Madrid, an action that she describes as “police harassment against those who supported the general strike.” In her view, there were episodes of “police violence” and “charges and unjustified assaults” by the officers.
In her request, she calls for the support of the chairwoman of Congress as a “guarantor” of the “exercise of fundamental rights by citizens” against what she defines as “interference” and “permanent obstruction” by the Security Forces and Corps.
“Police abuse and brutality” and demands for resignations
Belarra has also taken advantage of her appearance this Thursday at the Permanent Deputation of Congress to reiterate her demand for the resignation of the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, as well as her exclusion from the PSOE lists.
“Beatings, open heads, broken ribs, sexual assaults, 50 people detained, mass identifications of people who were taking part in peaceful protests or who were passing by the street—she has summarized it. This has a name, police brutality, police abuse”.
Sources from Podemos specify that her reference to “sexual assaults” is linked to reports shared on social media about a video in which an officer places his hand on the chest of an Adelante Andalucía regional MP with the intention of moving her aside during a picket.
According to the Podemos leader, “those responsible for this police brutality” are in the coalition government and “someone has to assume responsibility” in the face of “police brutality” recorded during the strike day.
Belarra’s initiative adds to the demonstrations by the head of Podemos’ list, the MEP Irene Montero, who yesterday also called for Marlaska’s resignation and that the leader of the PSOE, Pedro Sánchez, exclude her from the electoral lists of his party. “They spend all day saying that far-right extremists are going to come and take our rights away, and when people go out to defend their rights they fill them with sticks,” she reproached.