“7:30 pm Plaça de Can Trullàs. Course: Applied techniques of urban guerrilla warfare. Introduction to the main technical-tactical elements of a subversive strategy.” From what this advertisement may seem, no one would imagine what it belongs to or where it comes from. This is the latest controversy generated in the Barcelona municipality of Granollers, which is celebrating its Fiesta Mayor this week. The unions, the neighbors and the city hall itself They criticized this activity, included in the official program of the said festival. This has already been reported to the public prosecutor.
The controversy broke out on social networks, where the City Council itself shared the list of activities planned for one of the festivities, especially this Tuesday. In the late afternoon, in the aforementioned square, it was planned to host a workshop on techniques applied to urban guerrilla warfare. An activity organized by the Colla dels Blaus, more precisely the “Blaucops” group that every year performs a police parody, but never like this year’s, if we can describe it that way.
At the place where it had been installed an educational poster on the production and use of the Molotov cocktail. Later, footage emerged on social media showing children and adults throwing the device at a doll pretending to be an agent.
The controversy did not take long to arrive. One of the first to speak out about this activity was the Professional Association of the Civil Guard, Jucil. In a publication on its X profile, the union criticized the incitement to hatred “towards the security forces and bodies of the State” that it accuses. “is increasing in an Autonomous Community that increasingly resembles the Basque Country”. They also described it as “a real shame that children are involved in these types of acts.”
From SAP-Fepol, they described as “regrettable” the image and values that they transmit to the youngest with this type of tests during a big festival. “Then we complained…” he emphasizes. For its part, the SUP announced that it was studying legal measures against this “barbarity”, because “it cannot go unpunished”.
“The idea they have in Granollers for popular festivals: teaching children to throw Molotov cocktails. There are many democratic values to teach and it is neither a value nor a democracy.” The CCOO union section of Mossos also denounced this act, which it considers “neither playful nor festive”, but rather “very serious”, which is why it asked the new team in the Ministry of the Interior of the Generalitat to take measures.
The president of the Catalan Association of Civic Coexistence, Ángel Escolano Rubio, also expressed a critical tone about the news, who said he received the news with “astonishment”. The publication accompanies it with the aforementioned images of the workshop where she assures that “children and grandmothers are taught to throw Molotov cocktails at images of police officers”.
He even wonders if the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande Marlaska, would have seen “What is the PSC dedicated to in Granollers”. And in this Catalan municipality, the socialists have the absolute majority. Precisely, it is Marlaska who has the United Police Union (SUP) in a letter.
In the letter, they admit to feeling “deep concern” about “to observe how certain groups, in their quest to achieve their political or ideological objectives, use the manipulation of young people and children.” Thus, and addressing the minister directly, they remind him that “the children who today amuse themselves by throwing stones at a doll dressed as a policeman are the terrorists of tomorrow.”
The Professional Association of Police Commanders of Catalonia also did the same and, in a statement, described what happened as “ “deplorable spectacle”“We understand perfectly that there are people who do not like the police and who express it in different ways, but what we cannot understand or admit is that a city hall appropriates it,” reads the statement to which LaSexta had access.
In the face of criticism, the organizing group also spoke out, regretting the “interpretation” that was made of the act“In no case was there any intention to offend the security forces or to incite violence. It was a recreational act within the framework of the Festival,” they explained in a publication on social networks.
This is the same way that the City Hall used to issue a statement on the controversy that arose. Beyond expressing their “support for the security forces” and rejecting “the content of the event organized by a group”, they assure that the City Hall They were unaware of “the content of the act.” Likewise, they assure that they defend “the values of peace and coexistence.” Of course, they defend that their festivals must be understood within the framework of parody, although in this case they recognize that the activity has been unfortunate.
It should be noted that it is the collas, self-managed for 40 years, who organize and finance most of the activities of this week of celebration in the municipality. In fact, the City Hall insists that they publish in the program the events they organize, but they do not ask for details about them. Another detail that should not be overlooked is that this year these groups are facing the Municipal Corporation because they have reduced their party hours, among other conflicts.
Hate crime?
The event has already taken place and the controversy is losing its force, but now the organizers could be charged with a hate crime. As reported this Wednesday by ‘ElNacional.cat’, the Mossos d’Esquadra would study an investigation into these acts as such.
In the afternoon, in fact, the spokesman for the Popular Party of Catalonia (PPC) assured that in addition to asking for the resignation of the mayor, Alba Barnusell, explaining to the president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, he also warned that they would present a complaint to the public prosecutor.
Just as some unions representing members of the security forces and corps of the Generalitat-Mossos d’Esquadra police and the urban guard of Badalona, Lleida and Tarragona have already done. In the trial, they ask the Public Prosecutor’s Office to initiate proceedings against the socialist mayor of the city for what they consider a hate crime and another of serious insults to security forces and agencies.
In addition, LaSexta has learned that the ERC municipal group of Granollers has called an extraordinary meeting of spokespeople this Tuesday afternoon – at 5:00 p.m. – at the Town Hall. A question that the popular people of the municipality have confirmed.
