The Minister of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, Ángel Víctor Torres, has flatly rejected that the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has any responsibility for the violent disturbances registered over the weekend in Barcelona, and has attributed the violence to the role of social networks, during an interview on La Hora de la 1.
Torres has compared what happened in the Catalan capital with the incidents registered in Ceuta on August 25, 26 and 27, when, as he recalled, “people who were delivering Red Cross food were not allowed to enter” and “shacks and shanties were burned on the beaches”. At that time, he pointed out, a call for “non-violence” was made together with the local authorities, who, as he explained, pointed to “groups that had come from outside, that were organized”.
Criticism of the PP and the political use of the altercations
In that context, the minister ironized about whether “Pedro Sánchez was also responsible for the disturbances in Ceuta” and described as “an absolutely regrettable thing” that, in his opinion, “they always try to find in the president of the government of Spain any issue that occurs in the streets with an absolutely opportunistic eagerness”.
Likewise, Ángel Víctor Torres has lashed out at the president of the Popular Party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, after the latter accused Sánchez of resisting to abandon power “with violence”. According to the minister, the PP leader “only has as an argument insult, disqualification, vile attack, unfounded accusations and no proposals”, and has reproached that, when asked about pensions, housing, social rights or public health, “all that will be discussed after the elections”.
Torres has maintained that whoever resorts solely to insult “is defeated from the start” against an Executive that responds “with arguments” and “with proposals”.
Social networks, under scrutiny for the altercations
On the other hand, the minister explained that there is a “very important” network of telematic connection that causes, on many occasions, “young people to be misinformed”. In that sense, he stressed that “networks should be for building and not for fueling violence”.
Ángel Víctor Torres has “undoubtedly” condemned the altercations that occurred in Barcelona and has expressed his wish that “normality arrives as soon as possible and that the investigations conclude”. He has also endorsed as “correct” the assessments of the President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, and the Mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, who have warned that those responsible will have to assume the consequences and that parents will have to pay for the damages committed by minors.
Regarding the possible authorship and coordination of the disturbances, the minister specified that, for now, “there are no new developments”, although he added that “it is being investigated, what happened, how it occurred and who may be behind it”. The Executive's priority, he said, is that “normality is achieved as soon as possible in that entire area”.