Greenpeace unfurls banner against Spain’s new “gag law” next to Congress

Greenpeace activists climbed atop a construction crane located near Spanish Congress in Madrid early Tuesday morning and unfurled a 32-meter banner reading “La protesta es un derecho” (Protesting is a right).

The group’s action took place a day before Spain’s controversial Citizen Safety Law, which introduces tougher new controls on public demonstrations, was due to go into effect across the country.

This law lacks any justification, since there are no serious citizen security concerns in Spain” Greenpeace spokesman Miguel Ángel Soto

The environmental organization used Twitter to share photographs of two activists atop the crane, and of another standing near the door of the lower house holding a sign that read Sin mordazas (Without gags) – a reference to the fact that opponents of the legislation have nicknamed it the “gag law.”

Greenpeace, which is asking people to join a street demonstration against the law at 7.30pm on Tuesday, believes the legislation will penalize the kind of peaceful protest outside public buildings that has become a hallmark of the environmental organization’s public campaigning.

“This law lacks any justification, since there are no serious citizen security concerns in Spain,” said Greenpeace spokesman Miguel Ángel Soto in a statement. In his opinion, this law “was thought up to silence, through fines, the voices that criticize the way the government is running the country and the consequences of the social, environmental and economic crisis resulting from corruption, social cuts, undermined rights and the privatization of public services.”

Greenpeace claims that some of the new penalties seem tailor-made for specific forms of peaceful protest in Spain, such as those staged by anti-eviction activists, labor unions and victims of preferred share schemes, which “in no case pose a danger to the security of citizens.”

“In practice, the new law establishes serious limits on freedom of expression and information, and on freedom of assembly,” said Greenpeace in its release. “This violates the international human rights obligations entered into by the Spanish state.”

“Starting tomorrow, it will be the state’s law enforcement agencies and the Interior Ministry who decide how we should exercise our freedom of expression and assembly,” said Soto.