Police charges at Madrid's Complutense University leave two students injured

Two students injured in police charges at the Complutense University

Two students were injured when police charged protesters at the Complutense University of Madrid during the first day of an education strike. The news, reported by elDiario.es, comes with footage showing officers charging against students and workers gathered at the university campus. The scene has peine the debate over the use of force in public spaces and over who has the right to take to the streets without getting beaten.

What peine at the Complutense

The facts are limited: an education strike day, a gathering at the university campus and a police intervention that left two students injured, according to the reports released. There are no official figures on arrests or injured officers in the available material. Nor is there a statement from the Government Delegation (the Spanish central government's office in the region) setting out the institutional version.

That absence of an official account is, in itself, a fact. When there is no incident report, the void is filled by images and interpretations. And that is where the problem begins.

The principle of proportionality, called into question

Part of the analysis holds that the police action went too far: that the response was excessive and that the principle of proportionality — the criterion requiring force to be matched to the real threat — was overstepped. The argument rests on the identity of the protesters: students and workers, not an armed group.

On the other side, another current argues the opposite: that the intervention was restrained, even soft, and that the brutality narrative is a self-serving construction. Some go further and claim that street violence has only one owner, and it is not exactly the right wing. The two positions clash with no middle ground.

The political context: Marlaska and Sánchez

Much of the criticism points to the Ministry of the Interior and, by extension, to the Government. Marlaska is named as ultimately responsible for police orders, and the charge is framed as part of an alleged strategy to manufacture martyrs. It is a political accusation, not a proven fact, and should be read as such.

Selective memory also appears as a weapon: it is recalled that there were already charges against protesters of a different political stripe, and that the silence back then was notable. The symmetry, real or exaggerated, serves to defuse each side's victimhood.

Education strike and street violence

The episode fits into a broader context of conflict in the education sector and of recurring clashes between protesters and police. The underlying question is not only what peine at the Complutense, but what threshold of force a democracy tolerates when facing unarmed students.

With two injured and no official figures to confirm or deny it, the matter remains open. The only verifiable thing, for now, is the image: officers charging and students running.