A Coruña sees renewed clashes and street fires after protests over Vox rally

An estimated 2,500 people attended the evening demonstration, according to Local Police. Called under the banner of opposition to fascism and police violence, the mobilisation ended with further police charges, objects thrown at officers, burning rubbish containers and road closures.

Firefighters told Spain’s EFE news agency that crews were called to several fires across the city. Although the last protesters dispersed after 11pm, some firefighters remained at work dealing with the aftermath.

The unrest followed a daytime protest against Abascal’s appearance in María Pita square, which drew around 5,000 people, according to the city council. Two demonstrators were arrested during those earlier disturbances, and several people were injured.

Confrontations after the rally

Abascal’s appearance was his first pre-election event in Galicia, where Vox has no elected representatives, including at municipal level.

The police charges began after the Vox leader and his supporters had left the square. During the confrontations, some protesters threw stones, eggs, firecrackers and other objects at officers. Riot police used rubber bullets and gas to disperse crowds into neighbouring streets. Outdoor furniture belonging to local hospitality businesses was also damaged.

Accounts of the police response have become a central point of dispute. Organisers and witnesses cited by El País described the charges as ‘disproportionate’ and indiscriminate, saying that most demonstrators had behaved peacefully. Several young protesters were reported injured.

The daytime clashes prompted calls for further protests outside the central government’s offices in the city. Around 2,000 people were reported to have gathered during the afternoon, while Local Police put attendance at the later evening mobilisation at approximately 2,500.

Evening march ends in further disorder

Groups used social media to call protesters to gather outside central government offices in A Coruña at 8pm. The demonstration, which had not been formally notified to the authorities, moved between two government buildings before returning to its starting point.

The march and subsequent unrest disrupted traffic on routes into the city and along the outbound Avenida do Porto. Further clashes broke out as police charged and some protesters threw objects, including flares. Several people were injured.

Barricades were erected and rubbish containers set alight. Local broadcaster Radio Coruña reported that 27 containers were burned during the night.

In a statement issued late on Wednesday, the central government’s representatives in Galicia said: ‘The Government Delegation condemns all forms of violence, respects the right to demonstrate enshrined in the Constitution and recognises the work carried out by the State Security Forces.’

Political criticism and questions over police conduct

The disturbances drew sharply differing political responses, with the right-wing People’s Party (PP) condemning attacks on police and the Galician Nationalist Bloc (BNG) demanding explanations over the officers’ actions.

PP leader and candidate for prime minister Alberto Núñez Feijóo expressed support for the security forces on Thursday.

‘Galicia is not like this,’ he wrote on social media, adding that ‘violence has no place in a democracy’.

‘All our support to the people of A Coruña and the State Security Forces. They do not deserve this,’ he said.

Feijóo accompanied his message with footage showing several demonstrators striking a police officer who was injured. El País reported that the clip omitted an earlier part of the sequence in which an officer pushes a young man down some steps.

His intervention followed comments on Wednesday from PP secretary-general Miguel Tellado, who expressed solidarity with Abascal and warned that ‘stirring up the streets and inciting confrontation is irresponsible and has serious consequences’.

The BNG, the main opposition party to the PP in Galicia, condemned the police response and called on socialist Pedro Sánchez’s government to explain what had happened. Protest organisers also challenged the handling of the demonstration, citing witness accounts and footage circulated online in support of their allegations of indiscriminate police action.

Clashes also reported in Avilés

Abascal’s campaigning later took him to Avilés, in the neighbouring region of Asturias, where a separate protest on Wednesday evening also resulted in confrontations with police.

Three people were reported arrested and several injured in those disturbances. Those arrests were separate from the two reported during the earlier protest in A Coruña.