Indignation for the police aggression against a minor in the lead-up to Barça: "These animals must pay for the abuse"

BarcelonaThe police charges and the forceful removals of Esteladas that were witnessed during the lead-up to this Sunday's match between Barça and Elche have been personified in a video on X in which a young Barça fan is seen falling to the ground from baton blows just after the National Police removed his Estelada. Consequently, the wave of political and social reactions has not been long in coming: it has received the unanimous condemnation of the independence movement, from Junts to ERC, the CUP, Òmnium Cultural, Aliança Catalana, and various entities and Barça fan clubs, who are demanding that the Ministry of the Interior explain the agents' actions and hold them accountable.

The young Catalan fan, a minor, received several baton blows until he decided to defend himself, which led to numerous officers hitting him forcefully until they subdued him on the ground. Once handcuffed, they continued to hit him on several occasions, even delivering punches. He spent the night in the cells and is now free.

Junts has been the first to react. The party's leader in Congress, Miriam Nogueras, has requested from X "all available information" about the events and has demanded that the officers – whom she has categorized as "animals" – "pay" for their actions, which she describes as "abuse and mistreatment." The party president, Carles Puigdemont, has gone further and accused the force of "structurally exuding hatred towards Catalan identity," a "disease" in which, he says, "people from the highest instances to football players, including judges and journalists, participate." In a healthy society, he adds, this "would be intolerable," but "in Spain it is a merit." The party is registering an extensive battery of questions in Congress this Monday about the legal basis for the removal of esteladas and is requesting disciplinary measures if a disproportionate use of force is confirmed.

ERC has followed the same line, with an official statement demanding "an immediate investigation" into the police operation and has submitted a request for the Interior Minister to appear before Congress. ERC demands that it be clarified whether the police adhered "to the principles of proportionality and respect for fundamental rights" and recalls that "freedom of expression must always be guaranteed, regardless of where Barça plays or the sporting context.

Òmnium Cultural, for its part, has placed the episode in a broader context: "That the police confiscate Esteladas and exercise disproportionate violence is not new: it evidences the serious democratic shortcomings of the Spanish state," the entity tweeted, insisting that defending independence "is exercising freedom of expression" and "is not a crime." Acció Cassandra, an independentist collective dedicated to documenting and reporting cases of repression, has also joined social media, filing a complaint with the Elche district court, as well as requesting direct testimonies of the events to gather evidence. Several Barça fan groups have sent similar complaints on social media and have demanded accountability for the agents present at the stadium. The club itself has issued a statement denouncing the events and has offered legal advice to the arrested member.

Aliança Catalana has taken advantage of the case to campaign politically, linking the case in Elx with the arrival of immigrants: "A state that tolerates us in Elx for carrying estelades while in Ceuta it paves the way for rapists and thieves. Seriously, won't you vote for Aliança Catalana?", Sílvia Orriols asked on X.

However, sources from the Spanish government delegation in Catalonia have reported that the National Police will investigate the actions of its agents in Elx. Furthermore, following Barça's statement, the Spanish government delegate in Catalonia, Carlos Prieto, has contacted his counterpart in the Valencian Community, Pilar Bernabé, who will also open her own investigation to clarify the facts.

A pattern that goes way back

The Elche episode is not an isolated incident, but the latest chapter in a trend that has been repeating for over a decade. From the 2012 Copa del Rey final at the Vicente Calderón – when ERC already denounced a "brutal police aggression" for a Catalan flag – to the controls at the Bernabéu in 2015, the express prohibition of Catalan flags at the 2017 Copa del Rey final, or the more recent seizures at the Metropolitano stadium in Madrid this April, the Catalan symbol has been systematically subjected to checks and removals in sports contexts. It is not only the Spanish police who have pursued the symbol: UEFA itself fined Barça 40,000 euros for displaying Catalan flags and independence chants, considering it a political act rather than a social outcry, as the club alleged.

On a legal level, the removal of Catalan flags is usually justified by Law 19/2007 against violence, racism, xenophobia and intolerance in sport, which in reality does not mention political symbols: it prohibits flags that incite violence or insult someone based on race, religion, or sexual orientation, not ideological expression. In fact, a Madrid court already overturned it in 2016, following a lawsuit by the association Drets and a Barça member, considering that the Catalan flag was "a simple manifestation of ideological freedom" protected by the Constitution – a ruling with limited effects in that match but which Abad recalled this Monday on X to question the legality of what happened at Elche.