Discriminatory insults on football pitches and police violence against blacks: what’s happening with racism in Spain?

The throwing of that verbal dagger shouting “monkey” at a footballer was repeated during this Holy Week in a field in Getafe, Madrid. And the viral video of a possible cruelty of the use of force during the searches of two young black men in the Madrid neighborhood of Lavapiés has once again raised the alarm in Spain how to fight racism and xenophobia.

This time it was the turn of the Argentine world champion Marcos Acuña, who plays for Sevilla. During this weekend, his team was a guest at the Coliseum stadium of the Getafe Club de Fútbol when, in the 68th minute, The match was suspended for verbal aggression that the Argentine received.

“In the 68th minute I had to stop the match because there were racist insults against the visiting number 19, with words like “Coin Monkey” AND ‘Acuña come from the monkey’, by fans positioned in the central area of ​​the pitch behind the position of my assistant referee no. 2 – specifies the referee in the report he left written -. “This incident, following the protocol of action in such cases, was announced via the public address system, with play not resuming until two and a half minutes later and did not occur on any other occasion during the match .”

During the same match, Sevilla coach Quique Sánchez Flores also received insults: They shouted “gypsy” at him.

“I am proud of every pore of my veins that breathe,” said Sánchez Flores at the end of the match which his team won 1-0 with a goal from Sergio Ramos.

“But it’s one thing to be a gypsy and another to be used as an insult. “It seems aberrant to me,” she added.

The 18 Complaints of Vinícius

The attacks on Acuña and his coach They are not an isolated incident in Spanish football. The Brazilian Vinícius Júnior, who plays for Real Madrid, has already lodged 18 complaints about the chants he receives on the pitch.

“Bye, bye, bye, chimpanzee Vinicius” or “You’re a monkey” are some of the insults chanted by fans of opposing teams.

On Monday 25 March, during the press conference before the friendly match that Brazil played in Madrid against Spain, Vinícius couldn’t hold back his tears when they asked him about the racist attacks he suffers.

“I had been studying the topic of racism for a long time and I have less and less desire to playr,” said the 23-year-old Brazilian, who was captain of his country’s national team during the friendly.

As soon as he learned that the Argentine Acuña suffered the same insults that he endured, Vinícius said: “Racists must be exposed and the games cannot continue with them in the stands. We will only have victory when the racists leave the stadiums straight into prison, the place they deserve.”

“Racism in football is a problem that depends on everyone, on the whole society and obviously we all have to improve,” said Argentine Diego Simeone, a former player of the Argentine national team and current manager of Atlético de Madrid.

According to a report by the European Union (EU) Fundamental Rights Agency, 37% of blacks living in Spain say they have suffered discrimination and incidents of racism in the last five years.

Police abuse?

The same EU report finds that 52 percent of respondents en Spain says it was subjected to checks because it was black.

Since the weekend, a video has been circulating online in which two young black men are subdued with excessive violence in the Lavapiés neighborhood.

From the images it emerges that, while one of them was pinned to the ground by a police officer, the one who was standing was beaten by another uniformed officer, even though he had no resistance.

The Police claimed that, during the arrest of the young people during an anti-drug operation, Those arrested became violent.

However, the SOS Racismo Madrid organization called for a mobilization on Sunday to denounce police violence, “the criminalization of racialized people”.

“No human being is illegal”

Around 350 people gathered on Sunday, at 7pm, in the Plaza de Lavapiés. With poster of “Black Lives Matter” (in reference to “Black Lives Matter” which identified the demonstrations against the murder of the African American George Floyd, which occurred in 2020, committed by the police officer Derek Chauvin, who suffocated him by pressing his knee on Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes) and “Black Power,” the protesters shouted: “No human being is illegal” and “Enough with police violence.”

Serigne Mbaye, a former Podemos deputy in the regional parliament known as the Madrid Assembly, denounced during the protest: “Police brutality and harassment is something that racialized bodies have to endure on a daily basis in Lavapiés.”

Mbaye was born in Senegal and has lived in Spain for almost two decades, where he naturalized.

“We demand that the government take measures to eradicate all racist violence,” added Mbaye, a member of the Association of the Undocumented and the Manteros Union of Madrid.

The general secretary of Podemos, Ione Belarra, asked this on Monday the resignation of the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska.

“This absolutely gratuitous and unjustified police violence that is repeated against racialized people has no place in a democracy,” Belarra said. “The best thing for state security forces and bodies would be to act on their own initiative, removing those who don’t do their job well.”

The government partner asks for explanations

Sumar, the party that forms the government coalition with Pedro Sánchez’s PSOE, also came out to ask for explanations from the Ministry of the Interior: “Last Saturday a video went viral showing excessive action by security agents security. The National Police in front of two migrants and racialized people – said Ernest Urtasun, party spokesperson and Minister of Culture on Monday. From Sumar we condemn these events and we want this police action to be investigated in depth”.

The Interior Ministry said Monday it had opened an investigation into complaints from anti-racist organizations.

The National Office for the Guarantee of Human Rights will establish whether or not there was violence on the part of the police in the operation against two young black men which took place over the weekend in Lavapiés.

In July last year, the same Minister of the Interior presented the Report on the evolution of hate crimes in Spain in 2022. According to Grande Marlaska, hate crimes in Spain have grown by 3.7% compared to last year.