Greenpeace gags and cages symbolic lion during Madrid protest

THOUSANDS of citizens took to the streets of Madrid and other Spanish cities today (February 14) to protest against a new citizens’ security law currently being planned by the government.

A bill for the law, nicknamed Ley Mordaza (Gag law) was  approved by the government last December despite heavy opposition from some politicians and activist groups, that say the law violates the right to protest, limits freedom of expression and gives too much power to the police.

Today’s protests were called by citizen’s group No Somos Delito (We’re no crime) to express their disapproval of the measure.

Hundreds marched at midday from Plaza de España to the Puerta del Sol in Madrid for Dia de los AMORdazados (which could be roughly translated as Gagentines Day.)

Greenpeace, one of the organisations that supported the protest, took along a copy of one of the lions found outside the Spanish Parliament building, gagged and caged.

The lion was a symbol of what Greenpeace, which has criticised the Citizen’s Security Law and reforms to the Penal Code, sees as a restriction of civilian freedom.

“This lion is a copy and the cage is fake. Yet if the reforms to law are approved we’ll have to face a legal system similar to those seen in the past,” declared Miguel Angel Soto, Greenpeace spokesman.

Soto continued: “the government is intent on silencing the voice of the people, gagging those that disagree and fining citizens that cannot resign themselves to the reality we are living.”