Madrid's two-day public holiday was marked by clashes between youths and police over open-air partying in the Malasaña district.
The clashes, in which barricades were built and molotovs thrown at police, seem to have started as an attempt to break up a party (botellón) in Plaza de dos de Mayo. There is a law against street drinking in Madrid, but it is rarely enforced. The clashes started on the evening of May 1st and re-emerged the night after, Madrid's civic holiday. There are no reports of arrests or injuries directly related to the events.
A witness to the clashes on c. de Barco said: "we came out of the bar at 3:30am and all the cars had been moved and there was a skip in the middle of the road. I don't know how they managed to move it. We saw the police at the top of the street preparing to charge and we got out of the way fast because when they do that, they don't care who they hit. We went into (another pub) and a few minutes later we saw them charging down the street."
The night after the clashes, police were present in large numbers at dos de Mayo, searching everyone they thought might have bottles. The street vendors were a lot more discreet about the beer they were carrying and things were tense but generally quiet. Anyone who stepped out of line was severely dealt with by the police, I witnessed two skateboarders prone with police on their necks, apparently as a result of the 330 ml can of lager nearby.
So is there more to this than a nihilistic drunken brawl between youths and the police? The level of organisation of the fight back seems to suggest that a raw nerve was struck. The irony of this miniature uprising is clear from the history of May 2nd. The district and square are named for the victims of Napoleon's crackdown against rebellious Madrileños who started the uprising against French rule in 1808. Manuela Malasaña was a seamstress searched by police and summarily executed for carrying a pair of scissors. The incidents are Madrid folklore, dramatically depicted in a pair of Goya's paintings and re-enacted every year (though not generally in such a vigorous manner).
It has emerged that the police may have acted illegally in attempting to break up the botellón, as the law they were enforcing allows for drinking on festival days. A point made in corporate newspaper el Pais was that the current law makes no distinction between social and anti-social drinking, and that the many bars in the area are under no such obligations to curb anti-social behaviour. It seems that these incidents are part of an ongoing conflict over the use of public space in Madrid.
A witness to the clashes on c. de Barco said: "we came out of the bar at 3:30am and all the cars had been moved and there was a skip in the middle of the road. I don't know how they managed to move it. We saw the police at the top of the street preparing to charge and we got out of the way fast because when they do that, they don't care who they hit. We went into (another pub) and a few minutes later we saw them charging down the street."
The night after the clashes, police were present in large numbers at dos de Mayo, searching everyone they thought might have bottles. The street vendors were a lot more discreet about the beer they were carrying and things were tense but generally quiet. Anyone who stepped out of line was severely dealt with by the police, I witnessed two skateboarders prone with police on their necks, apparently as a result of the 330 ml can of lager nearby.
So is there more to this than a nihilistic drunken brawl between youths and the police? The level of organisation of the fight back seems to suggest that a raw nerve was struck. The irony of this miniature uprising is clear from the history of May 2nd. The district and square are named for the victims of Napoleon's crackdown against rebellious Madrileños who started the uprising against French rule in 1808. Manuela Malasaña was a seamstress searched by police and summarily executed for carrying a pair of scissors. The incidents are Madrid folklore, dramatically depicted in a pair of Goya's paintings and re-enacted every year (though not generally in such a vigorous manner).
It has emerged that the police may have acted illegally in attempting to break up the botellón, as the law they were enforcing allows for drinking on festival days. A point made in corporate newspaper el Pais was that the current law makes no distinction between social and anti-social drinking, and that the many bars in the area are under no such obligations to curb anti-social behaviour. It seems that these incidents are part of an ongoing conflict over the use of public space in Madrid.
