Spain: Crackdown Against Students Continues in Valencia

This post is part of our special coverage Europe in Crisis.

Just a few days after the brutal police crackdown at the Luis Vives Institute of Secondary Education in Valencia, students have again been the target of beatings, pushing and violence from the police at a pacific protest in which they were, precisely, demonstrating against police violence. This time, the crackdown started on the afternoon with unexpected force.

The chief of Valencia Police himself has referred to the protesters as “the enemy“, even though they are youngsters from 12 to 17 years, all secondary school students.

Reactions from #15M social movements were quick to denounce the crackdowns against minors and ask for an investigation and for the political and police leaders to immediately stop the repression of minors and the participants of the pacific gatherings.

About 400 university students have locked themselves up in the Universidad de Valencia (Valencia University) as a form of protest. And in anticipation to the police crackdown inside the University, the Dean has denied access to the forces of “law and order” that attempted to dissolve the protest, basing her decision on the principle of university autonomy.