The bars of rue Ferrazthe epicenter of the protests against sanchism, went from being a simple scene coexisting as best it could with demonstrators and riot police to being at the center of the spotlight after the statement of Commissioner Víctor de Aldama. Before the judge, among other things, he assured that he would have given an envelope of 15,000 euros to the current secretary of the Socialist Organization, Santos Cerdán, in a bar opposite the PSOE headquarters. “What he says is not crazy. Of course they come to these places, if they’re right across the street. “I am not aware of the delivery of an envelope with money,” Nabila, who owned Baraka’s before selling it due to the “dramatic situation in the region” last August, told the newspaper.
Between numbers 37 and 41 of this street located a few meters from the Temple of Debod, there are three businesses. At 37 Baraka’s and 41 El Lagar, run by a couple for almost four decades. Between these two is Ferraz, the most frequented by socialists for breakfast and lunch. Google reviews praise the treatment given to the waitresses and especially the place’s tortillas, also very popular at the PSOE headquarters. These, along with office workers and police officers, constitute the bar’s main clientele.
With Aldama’s statements last Thursday about the alleged bites of Ferraz’s number 3, this place has come into the spotlight. However, they do not consider that bad publicity affects them since their activity consists of offering their services to regulars in this area. Regarding the alleged delivery of this envelope to Cerdán, they assure that they do not know that it happened inside their premises nor if the agent has already been there or in the rest of the bars in the area.
Nabila, for her part, insists that Aldama’s statement could “end up killing the traders who have been suffering the consequences of the protests for almost 400 days.” This same Friday, during the demonstration organized to demand the resignation of the president of the government, Pedro Sánchez, the residents were once again targeted. “They have already called me red shit and given me negative reviews,” Nabila denounces this newspaper.
Nearly 400 days of demonstrations
Since the beginning of November 2023 and motivated by the fight against the central government and its amnesty bill, Ferraz has become the kilometer zero of demonstrations. During the day, the street is quiet and the only iota of protest is in the horn of a driver’s vehicle, showing disagreement with the executive and the political situation in the country. The nights, for their part, are diverse. There are times, say the owners of the premises on this street, like last Thursday or Friday, that there are hundreds of people who set up in front of the headquarters of the National Socialist Party with their flares, their flags, their songs and their speeches; In others, only the usual people gather – “fifty or sixty” – who come religiously to show their true contempt for the policies of the current government.
In the two situations described, the owner of Baraka and resident of this neighborhood determines, “they cut off the street” in addition to all the police deployment. “What is clear is that there are still mechanisms for this,” he criticizes.
The most famous last demonstration took place on November 10, when riot police attacked demonstrators who tried to reach the gate of the PSOE headquarters from Plaza España. However, they never managed to reach their destination since the Government Delegation itself marked the corner of this street with Marqués de Urquijo as the authorized limit to prevent the radicals from advancing. When the demonstrators became aware of this security barrier, the night began to become tense, culminating in several attacks, burning containers and throwing bottles and other blunt objects at the police. At least two people were arrested.
Business closure
This is not the only time these protests have ended up involving riot police. The well-known insecurity of this district of Madrid during the hours when the most income is collected in this type of business, scares away the clientele of the bars who did not want to change their model and reinvent themselves to survive. – Many of them have decided to start offering breakfasts. Thus, around 8:00 p.m., the interior of Barakas’s, El Lagar or Ferraz 39, located in the heart of Madrid, is deserted. Before the start of these demonstrations, as a previous article in the newspaper indicated, “everything was full”.
Nabila never felt greater relief than the day she lowered the shutters of her business for the last time, says the woman who opened this bar in June 2023. A year and two months later, she gave up her matter to the current owners, who are now suffering from the same problems as she was at the time. “If I find out that this is going to happen, I will not lose money by opening this business,” he emphasizes.
It was precisely when this businesswoman’s bar “started to be robbed” that the protests began. From that moment on, there was no rest,” the woman recalls. “You have to fire a lot of people, you feel helpless because they don’t give you a solution, you can’t not send ERTE to employees We must continue to pay taxes while they throw the ball and those who get angry are always the self-employed and businesses,” he laments.
