The far-right shakes up the Santa Maria festivities after the arrests of activists

PalmaThe patron saint's festivals of Santa Maria del Camí have been marked by a succession of incidents that have generated strong concern in the municipality. The assaults reported during Friday's celebration against the PD Lluca duo and Santa Servera Màrtir, a second attack reported on Saturday against a person linked to the Antifascist Coordinator, and the appearance of neo-Nazi graffiti on two homes have opened a police investigation and provoked reactions from the Town Hall and various social groups.

The events come after the arrest of two young women investigated for graffiti against five real estate agencies in the town, an episode that had already generated political and social tension in Santa Maria and which the Civil Guard boasted about this Tuesday at a press conference. At the same time, the head of the Civil Guard, Alejandro Hernández, confirmed that the Civil Guard has taken over the investigation into the neo-Nazi graffiti that appeared on two houses linked to the families of the arrested activists.

The young women's circle filed a complaint with the Local Police of Santa Maria, which has transferred it to the Command of the Civil Guard in the Balearic Islands. Now, said the brigadier general, they will carry out the necessary investigations to try to clarify the facts and identify those responsible. "I don't know where the investigation will end. Logically, each investigation has different paths and its own timing," he pointed out.

LGTBI-phobic aggression during the New Year's Eve celebration

The drag queens Lluca and Santa Servera Màrtir reported being victims of an LGTBI-phobic aggression during their performance on Friday evening. According to their account, shortly after starting the concert, a group of young people began to harass them with insults and violent attitudes to the point that the performance had to be suspended.

The artists explain that they do not know if the origin of the hostility was related to the flags they had on the table – including a Palestinian flag, an SOS Residents flag, and an Antihomophobe Action flag – but they assure that during the performance there were homophobic insults, throwing of objects, spitting towards the stage, and shouts of "long live Spain," while they displayed a Spanish flag.

They also report that members of the audience who intervened to defend them ended up being assaulted. One of the victims explains that she suffered a very strong anxiety attack and received a blow to the head that required medical assistance as a result of the incidents.

Escalation of aggressions

The Antifascist Coordinator of Mallorca assures that the conflict began when the artists were heckled by a group of young people with "hate speech based on LGTBI-phobia and misogyny".

According to the statement, people participating in the party tried to support the artists and prevent the situation from escalating, but they assure that the group requested external reinforcements and the number of aggressors increased.

The platform states that several people were surrounded, pursued, and physically and verbally assaulted. They report that there were shoves, punches, and people with injuries and anxiety crises that required medical assistance. According to the Coordinator, on Saturday, during the celebration of the groups, a person who the previous day showed their support for the assaulted DJs, was pursued and assaulted by a group of five or six people. The victim assures that they received blows and were thrown to the ground while being shouted homophobic expressions.

Furthermore, they denounce that another comrade was allegedly pursued to their home after the party. The Coordinator also criticizes the police action on Friday, as they consider that the intervention treated the situation "as a conflict between two equal parties" and demands that the events be investigated as an assault against people from a marginalized group.

"We hope that the Civil Guard acts with the same speed as they did with the detainees"

The mayor of Santa Maria, Nicolau Canyelles, has confirmed that the Local Police intervened during the festival to separate the two groups involved in the fight.

In this regard, the mayor pointed out that the Local Police opened a report and the investigation has passed to the hands of the Civil Guard. According to Canyelles, among the people involved were residents of the municipality and people from outside, and he considers that the action had all indications to think that it had been planned. "It seems they wanted to make an act of boycott to the party and they continued on Saturday", he said. The mayor assures that Santa Maria knows some of those involved and defends that the facts must be investigated to the end. "We hope that the Civil Guard acts with the same speed as it did with those arrested last week", he pointed out.

Neo-Nazi graffiti

Tensions rose on Monday with the appearance of graffiti on two houses linked to the family of one of the activists arrested for the graffiti against real estate companies.

The graffiti included Stars of David, the words 'judíos' and 'Juden'' and an incomplete swastika, symbols that the Nazis used to mark Jews with the aim of humiliating them and differentiating them from the rest of the citizenry. The incidents have already been reported to the Local Police. For the mayor, these are "clearly Nazi" graffiti linked to neo-Nazi and far-right groups. "Either people from the town did it or there was collaboration from people from the town, because they knew where they were going," he states.

The authors of the graffiti have not yet been identified. Several neighbors and members of the Antifascist Coordinator have pointed out that there is an environment in the municipality of people related to Núcleo Nacional, an ultranationalist and neo-Nazi group.

These sources assure that there was knowledge of a possible desire to establish a structure of the group in Santa Maria, where one of the leaders resides. However, they are cautious about directly attributing authorship of the events to them due to a lack of evidence, but they consider that it would have "certain logic." "It could be people related to this environment, but who are not part of it. In any case, they are people with a lot of hate," point out neighborhood and Antifascist Coordinator sources. For their part, the City Council has assured that it also has no record that this group has an organized presence in the municipality.

Waste concentration

In view of these incidents, the Santa Maria City Council has called a rally this Tuesday noon to read a manifesto of condemnation. The Antifascist Coordinator and the Orgull Crític platform have also joined the initiative, demanding an institutional response to any manifestation of hatred and measures to ensure that festive spaces are safe for everyone. "We cannot allow ourselves to be afraid to walk down the street," said sources from the Coordinator.