Assault on a Couple of Protesters in Alicante for Demonstrating Against Mazón and Sánchez

Lucía and her partner were unable to complete the route of Saturday's protest in Alicante against the political management of the DANA. They had to leave the lines on the way through Maisonnave Avenue after receiving assaults and threats.

The reason? Carrying a banner that reads "Sánchez and Mazón are the same crap." It was just a few minutes after the protest began on General Marvá Avenue when they moved forward in the march. At that moment, they saw a couple move away from them, murmuring "I don't identify" with the slogan.

A few steps further, before reaching the vicinity of Luceros Square, a passerby saw them and applauded. "He shouted 'Bravo for your courage. You are the only ones telling the truth,'" Lucía details, and it was then that the rest of the gazes focused on their sign.

As they walked, a woman approached the couple to remind them that in the Community there is "the Statute of Autonomy," referring to their banner that also criticizes the president of the Government. After her, a man began shouting "I'll break their heads," when Lucía started to "feel scared."

For this reason, she moved to the park on this avenue to leave the protest for the first time. "At that moment I wasn't aware, but my boyfriend and several witnesses told me that a sign was thrown at my back," the young woman reports to this newspaper. Since this incident, they have opted to follow the protest from the sidewalk, away from the crowd.

It was when they approached the entrance of Luceros station that they saw the National Police officers, whom they approached to report the assaults and threats. "They told me I can protest freely," in addition to advising her to "stay close to them as much as possible to avoid physical assaults."

Thus, they continued their way through the protest until a group of four girls approached them to accompany them on the route. "You're not going to lower it," Lucía acknowledges they told her, to which she replied, "I didn't come to provoke anyone." Despite this, the violent attitudes continued: "they called us fascists and told us we couldn't carry the sign."

Thus, amid complaints and shouts of "you already have the photo," Lucía and her partner decided to leave the protest halfway down Maisonnave Avenue. "I was scared, I didn't know if when the protest ended and I went to get the motorcycle they would do something to me." Therefore, they decided to leave and go home.

Minutes earlier, this young woman from Alicante assures that the police explained to them that they can file a complaint at the police station for these events. "They told me I am within my rights." With this and "for my own safety," she left the circuit "disappointed."

"The unity and solidarity I saw in Catarroja when I went to clean the streets, I lost today," she lamented, emphasizing that "80% of the people at the protest don't know what they're talking about because they haven't put on boots or picked up a shovel."

In the same vein, Lucía wanted to make an appeal: "I would like there to be a free protest, without any political party involved."