Support for freedom of expression has gathered dozens of people in San Sebastian this Thursday in the process undertaken by the Spanish Government to reform the Citizen Security Act, known as the Mordaza Law. In response to the call made by a total of 22 social agents, trade unions and political parties, they have carried out a human chain in the center of the city to request the total repeal of the law they consider “a tool against social rights”: “We do not want reformist initiatives, we call for the repeal of the Mordaza Law”.

Thus, they invite the Basque political forces represented at the Madrid Congress to renounce any proposal that does not imply the repeal of the Mordaza Law, “unless it implies a true transformation of it”. Recalling the parliamentary majority that made possible in Spain the government of the PSOE and the United Nations Podemos, they also stress that the repeal of the law was in the programs of both parties: “So far they have ignored us, but now it is possible.”

The People’s Party (PP) law that prospered in 2015 has turned seven and a half years and the protesters have described as “terrible” the impact it has had since on Hego Euskal Herria, emphasizing that over time trends have “worsened a lot”. In fact, since 2020 it is estimated that in Hego Euskal Herria more than 30,000 files have been opened through the Mordaza Law, of which about 10,000 are “related to social, union and political rights”.

According to them, “data from these years have clearly demonstrated that the Mordaza Law is an important and powerful repressive instrument for the Spanish State and the economic powers to curb social, civil and political rights.” And in this sense, they claim that “it is designed to destroy the critical protest of collectives and people.”

Government and city hall also guilty

Although the Mordaza Law is a Spanish norm, the Protestants denounce that the Basque Government and the City Hall of San Sebastian also make correct use of it, accusing them of using the law against social movements through the Ertzaintza and the Municipal Police: “They have done everything: to gather, to demonstrate, to sing, to write, to speak, to inform, to protest…” Therefore, following the trajectory of the human chain, they have surrounded the City Hall of San Sebastian and glued a gigantic four-meter fine at its entrance under the supervision of the agents guarding the building.