AVT demo in Madrid: pure class, again

The BBC deigned to report on the AVT’s demonstration in Madrid at which between 7,000 and 110,000 activists marched against the early release of José Ignacio de Juana Chaos, after he wrote threatening articles which named some judges. What’s interesting about the way the protesters and the BBC presented this demo was that it was somehow to do with de Juana Chaos’s previous offence, the murder of 25 people during his career in ETA. Ostensibly, however, that was not the aim of the march at all. After all, de Juana Chaos has served 18 years of his sentence for that crime and, were he any other prisoner would be out early. So yet again, a demonstration called against one thing ends up being really about another thing completely. Or a multiplicity of things, as there were the usual banners around alluding to some kind of Zapatero involvement in 11M.

The AVT has no credibility as a politically independent pressure group.

It was nice to see the 7,000 enjoying the sunshine in Madrid’s streets. Nice to see them waving their flags (some of them replete with fascist emblems). Nice to see their Nazi salutes while they sang the anthem of the armed forces. There’s no doubt about it: the AVT rent-a-mob are a classy bunch.

One more thing: does anyone have any recent opinion poll stats on this topic? I haven’t been able to find anyone but was reliably informed by the BBC’s north American Spain correspondent that ‘the vast majority of Spaniards are against de Juana Chaos’s release’. That’s fine if it’s backed up with statistics… I just can’t find them. Much obliged to anyone who can enlighten me.

5 thoughts on “AVT demo in Madrid: pure class, again

  1. Put it this way… some people couldn’t give a flying fuck, a large number of people are dead against him ever getting out of prison, and even more don’t like the notion that he’s getting bailed for copping a sulk. It was reported, BTW, that a number of “common criminals” are currently trying that strategy out in Spanish jails – but I can’t find a trace of the item now.

    As for hard data – no chance.

  2. Yeah I figured that. It was just the highly unsubstantiated ‘vast majority’ term that got my hackles up. That kind of thing always does.

  3. It may be the case that a majority of people are against him getting out, but that unfortunately just demonstrates how a media storm can be whipped up on a single case. In the papers last week they published the names of 62 convicted members of ETA who were serving long sentences and who were all released having served 18 years or less under the same law…..oh I almost forgot to add, they all were released by the PP when they were in government.

  4. Ok – question, did you mean to write between 7,000 and 10,000? Rather than 110,000, which is what it says above. I’m guessing the 110,000 number is a mistake. Anyway the Times of London is reporting that ‘tens of thousands’ marched on Saturday (see link). Who is telling the truth? It’s amazing how much the figures vary, how one pair of eyes see 7,000 and another see tens of thousands. I suppose it depends where you place your X.

    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article1456914.ece

  5. Pillion – well spotted. The 110,000 number came from the AVT (protest organisers) and Madrid’s autonomous government. Who, as Graeme has pointed out on his blog, traditionally claim an attendance of over a million, a figure which would be physically impossible.

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