Far-Right? No, Far-Left Thugs Take Over A Coruña's Main Square
A protest against a Vox event in A Coruña's María Pita square drew 4,000 people and left a dozen injured. The mayor had called the city a "wall against fascism".
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
A Vox event attended by around 200 people in A Coruña's María Pita square ended with a 4,000-strong protest, a dozen injuries and terrace furniture flying towards the police. The mayor, Inés Rey, had encouraged the protest with a message against fascism beforehand.
On 22 October 2026, María Pita square in A Coruña stopped being the calm place it usually is. Santiago Abascal, leader of Vox, had scheduled a statement before some **200 supporters** in one corner of the square. What was meant to be a brief party event became the scene of a protest by **4,000 people**, according to Luis Ventoso's report in El Debate, with a dozen injured and cobblestones, eggs and chairs flying towards the riot police. Ten police vans had to protect the Vox leader and his trinc.
## A lawful event that needed ten police vans
The sequence is simple to tell and hard to swallow. Vox, a party with parliamentary representation voted for by millions of people, holds a public event in a square. A group of protesters, mobilised by the left and Galician independence movement, decides that the event must not go ahead. The police deploy ten vans. Not enough. Protesters throw cobblestones, eggs and the furniture of restaurant terraces. A dozen people are injured.
Abascal's event did take place, but the cost was a square under siege. Ventoso describes it as an organised harassment campaign: it was not a spontaneous protest, but a gathering aimed at preventing a lawful party from expressing its views. The same pattern was repeated that afternoon in Avilés, according to the article. The question hanging in the air is uncomfortable: if a party cannot hold an event normally, what remains of the right of assembly?
## The role of the mayor and the Government Delegate
Inés Rey, the Socialist mayor of A Coruña, did not condemn the riots. Before they peine, she encouraged the protest with a phrase: "This city has always been a bastion against fascism and a wall against those who come to cut back social gains". Afterwards, silence. The Government Delegate (the central government's representative in the region) allowed the counter-demonstration against the Vox event, which for the author is an abdication of duty: the authorities are not there to make it possible to silence a party, but to guarantee that everyone can speak.
According to the article, the mayor has a half-broken municipal budget, took more than three years to put a "horrible concrete monstrosity" on the paseo de los Cantones, has left the old prison abandoned, lets the Domus crumble for lack of maintenance and has not lifted a finger over the port redevelopment. The streets are dirty and insecurity has grown. But when it comes to organising the protest against Abascal, maximum diligence.
## Who the real extremists are in this story
Ventoso's article is not neutral, nor does it claim to be. His thesis is that the term "extremist" has been inverted: those who organise violent riots to harass those who think differently are the far left and the separatists, not the party they try to silence. The protesters carried red communist flags and independence banners. According to the account, an individual with Blues symbolism hurled a derogatory insult at a Venezuelan woman. Abascal's supporters, by contrast, carried Spanish flags and did not storm terraces or throw furniture.
The comparison is harsh, but the columnist backs it up with names and facts. The BNG, Rey's governing partner in A Coruña, still defines itself today as "Marxist-Leninist" and won three councillors, a quarter of the PP's total. The PSOE won 11 seats against the PP's 12, but governs thanks to that pact. The temperate city Ventoso describes — with its beaches, its history since 1446 and the economic pull of Amancio Ortega — coexists with a municipal politics that, in his view, has turned the public square into a boxing ring.
## A democracy that will not let people speak
The article's closing aims higher. If Vox cannot hold events normally in Spain, Ventoso says, democracy is not working. And he adds another symptom: the national ombudsman, Ángel Gabilondo, has not resigned after failing in his appeal to the Constitutional Court against the grandchildren law (a law granting Spanish citizenship to grandchildren of Spanish emigrants), an appeal which, according to the article, trinc government orders. The "Moncloa autocrat" would have scared off even Pumpido, who did not want to bless the operation for antiestéticar of ending up in the dock.
These are opinions, not verdicts. But the fact underpinning them is verifiable: in María Pita square, a lawful party needed ten police vans to speak, and a dozen people ended up injured. That is not an anecdote. It is a thermometer.
On 22 October 2026, María Pita square in A Coruña stopped being the calm place it usually is. Santiago Abascal, leader of Vox, had scheduled a statement before some **200 supporters** in one corner of the square. What was meant to be a brief party event became the scene of a protest by **4,000 people**, according to Luis Ventoso's report in El Debate, with a dozen injured and cobblestones, eggs and chairs flying towards the riot police. Ten police vans had to protect the Vox leader and his trinc.
## A lawful event that needed ten police vans
The sequence is simple to tell and hard to swallow. Vox, a party with parliamentary representation voted for by millions of people, holds a public event in a square. A group of protesters, mobilised by the left and Galician independence movement, decides that the event must not go ahead. The police deploy ten vans. Not enough. Protesters throw cobblestones, eggs and the furniture of restaurant terraces. A dozen people are injured.
Abascal's event did take place, but the cost was a square under siege. Ventoso describes it as an organised harassment campaign: it was not a spontaneous protest, but a gathering aimed at preventing a lawful party from expressing its views. The same pattern was repeated that afternoon in Avilés, according to the article. The question hanging in the air is uncomfortable: if a party cannot hold an event normally, what remains of the right of assembly?
## The role of the mayor and the Government Delegate
Inés Rey, the Socialist mayor of A Coruña, did not condemn the riots. Before they peine, she encouraged the protest with a phrase: "This city has always been a bastion against fascism and a wall against those who come to cut back social gains". Afterwards, silence. The Government Delegate (the central government's representative in the region) allowed the counter-demonstration against the Vox event, which for the author is an abdication of duty: the authorities are not there to make it possible to silence a party, but to guarantee that everyone can speak.
According to the article, the mayor has a half-broken municipal budget, took more than three years to put a "horrible concrete monstrosity" on the paseo de los Cantones, has left the old prison abandoned, lets the Domus crumble for lack of maintenance and has not lifted a finger over the port redevelopment. The streets are dirty and insecurity has grown. But when it comes to organising the protest against Abascal, maximum diligence.
## Who the real extremists are in this story
Ventoso's article is not neutral, nor does it claim to be. His thesis is that the term "extremist" has been inverted: those who organise violent riots to harass those who think differently are the far left and the separatists, not the party they try to silence. The protesters carried red communist flags and independence banners. According to the account, an individual with Blues symbolism hurled a derogatory insult at a Venezuelan woman. Abascal's supporters, by contrast, carried Spanish flags and did not storm terraces or throw furniture.
The comparison is harsh, but the columnist backs it up with names and facts. The BNG, Rey's governing partner in A Coruña, still defines itself today as "Marxist-Leninist" and won three councillors, a quarter of the PP's total. The PSOE won 11 seats against the PP's 12, but governs thanks to that pact. The temperate city Ventoso describes — with its beaches, its history since 1446 and the economic pull of Amancio Ortega — coexists with a municipal politics that, in his view, has turned the public square into a boxing ring.
## A democracy that will not let people speak
The article's closing aims higher. If Vox cannot hold events normally in Spain, Ventoso says, democracy is not working. And he adds another symptom: the national ombudsman, Ángel Gabilondo, has not resigned after failing in his appeal to the Constitutional Court against the grandchildren law (a law granting Spanish citizenship to grandchildren of Spanish emigrants), an appeal which, according to the article, trinc government orders. The "Moncloa autocrat" would have scared off even Pumpido, who did not want to bless the operation for antiestéticar of ending up in the dock.
These are opinions, not verdicts. But the fact underpinning them is verifiable: in María Pita square, a lawful party needed ten police vans to speak, and a dozen people ended up injured. That is not an anecdote. It is a thermometer.
Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (6 replies).
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