Laurence Crumbie
A GROUP of some 20 youths took to the streets yesterday in Andalucia to protest against the latest state of alarm.
Organised by the platform Pino Montana Fights Back, which condemns the coronavirus restrictions as destroying local businesses, young people in Sevilla’s working-class district of Pino Montana went out at 10:30pm in hooded sweaters.
At the rallying call of ‘Less police, more healthcare,’ they lit flares and fireworks and threw them onto the road.
They also set fire to at least one large rubbish container and flung bottles at firefighters when they tried to put out the flames.
Videos taken by outraged neighbours and the protestors themselves quickly went viral, but police only brought the situation under control at around 11:30pm.
In a manifesto published online a day earlier, Pino Montana Fights Back criticised the government’s ‘disastrous management’ of the pandemic and encouraged others to join their cause, whatever their political swing.
‘It is the last opportunity that we have to go onto the streets and defend the businesses and families in our neighbourhood before it is too late,’ wrote the organisers.
They also asked all participants to wear masks and social distance and said that they were waging war against ‘everyone at the top.’
No arrests were made at the scene, but police have since located several of the protestors thanks to the video footage.
