SPAIN AGAINST THE CTALANLONIA NATION -- Spain bans Catalan separatist flag during Copa del Rey final, as Catalan president announces he will not attend
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SPAIN A FASCIST STATE
Spain bans Catalan separatist flag during Copa del Rey final, as Catalan president announces he will not attend
Ada Colau, mayor of Barcelona, will also skip event, while Barcelona’s president contemplates doing the same
The Copa del Rey final between Barcelona
and Seville, which will take place next Sunday in Madrid, will play out
in an arena that extends beyond the Vicente Calderon football stadium.
Yesterday, the Spanish government’s
representative in Madrid, Concepción Dancausa, banned the display of
Catalan separatist flags at the stadium. Following this announcement,
prominent Catalan officials have expressed outrage at the measure and
have said they will not be attending the final if the ban is not
withdrawn. The first to weigh in was the president of the Catalan
government, Carles Puigdemont, followed by the mayor of Barcelona, Ada
Colau.
“The ban has surprised me greatly, as it goes against freedom of
expression”, said Puigdemont. “We are talking about a legal, democratic
flag that represents freedom to the millions of Catalans who uphold it.
This is an attack on freedom of expression”.
Colau, for her part, posted a comment on
social media saying that if Barcelona wins, the victory will be
celebrated together with the team on its return to Catalonia, and that
all flags will be welcome.
Barcelona, meanwhile, is weighing an
official response that could go as far as having its president, Josep
Maria Bartomeu, skip the final as well. The club will issue its response
in the next seventy-two hours, said club vice president, Carles
Vilarrubí.
“The atmosphere for the match is
certainly not the best, but we are not the ones who have created it”, he
said. Vilarrubí ruled out cancelling the game and said that the team
will play the final.
No to separatist flags, yes to neo-Nazis
At the same time that Spanish government officials
in Madrid banned the Catalan separatist flag from the Copa del Rey
final, they authorized a neo-Nazi demonstration that will be held on
Saturday in Madrid. The known neo-Nazi group Hogar Social Madrid has
been given the green light to demonstrate on the streets under the
slogan “Defend Spain, defend your people”, a march that will take place
concurrently with other far-right demonstrations in various European
cities.
