Cort begins the eviction of the housing encampment despite the protection of the right of assembly defended by the Delegation

PalmaThe Palma Local Police began the eviction of the housing protest camp at the Plaça d'Espanya this Wednesday around 9 pm, despite the fact that the Spanish government's Delegation in the Balearic Islands maintains that the protest is protected by the right of assembly and demonstration. The intervention comes after several days of tension between the Palma City Council's desire to evict the encampment and the participants' refusal to leave the site, which has been supported by the right of assembly reiterated on several occasions by the Spanish government's Delegation.

The intervention occurs just a few hours after the participants reiterated that they had no intention of leaving the space and a day after the Local Police identified several campers and Emaya workers removed fences, pallets, and other elements that delimited the encampment.

The municipal action on Tuesday sparked a response from the Palma Anti-Eviction Platform, which accuses the City Council and the Local Police of violating the right of peaceful assembly and demonstration. The group denounces that the removal of the structures that protected the encampment leaves the participants more exposed to potential provocations and assaults. For this reason, it has announced that it will seek accountability from both municipal officials and the agents who carried out the order.

Joan Segura, spokesperson for the platform and a member of the encampment, has assured that they possess a list with the names of 18 Local Police agents who allegedly participated in Tuesday's intervention. As he warned, the instruction they executed is "manifestly illegal" and could lead to individual responsibilities, in addition to those attributed to the City Council. "There is not only municipal responsibility, but also individual responsibilities of the agents in more than one aspect," he stated.

In this sense, he linked the removal of the protections to the tensions experienced at the Plaça d'Espanya after the Vox rally with Santiago Abascal, when a group of young supporters of the party appeared in front of the camp. He also mentioned the threats that, according to his version, occurred during the mobilization of the Blocus network. "The Palma City Council is complicit in fascist attacks," he denounced.

Sanctions pending

The intervention of the Local Police comes a few hours after the mayor of Palma, Jaime Martínez, assured that the City Council will wait for the Spanish government's Delegation in the Balearic Islands to decide on the eviction before studying whether to open sanctioning proceedings against the participants for a possible breach of municipal ordinances.

Martínez has once again defended that the campers are in breach of the civic coexistence and public space occupation ordinances, although he has nuanced that this is his "opinion". The mayor recalled that it was the government's Delegation that authorized the protest sine die and that, therefore, it is this administration that must determine whether it continues to be protected by the right to demonstrate and whether it is appropriate to put an end to it. Despite everything, this statement has fallen through hours later, as at this moment the municipal agents of Palma are forcibly removing the people who were camping.