A group of about thirty people attacked two young Spanish fans this afternoon in Vitoria-Gasteiz with pepper spray and beat them.
According to sources familiar with the events, the assault occurred near the Old Cathedral when the two young men were heading to watch the match at Plaza de España.
The Ertzaintza deployed several patrols throughout the Alava capital to try to locate the alleged perpetrators of the attack on these two young men.
This is not the only incident in the Basque Country related to the celebration of the grand final between Spain and Argentina. Participants in the march called this afternoon in support of the Basque team headed towards the pergola in Doña Casilda Park in Bilbao where they tried to sabotage the broadcast of the Spain match on the giant screen that the PP had installed at this spot, by throwing objects and causing various damages.
The march had started from the Casilla pavilion and ended in the area of the Museum of Fine Arts, but some people accessed the point where the Spain match was going to be shown.
Specifically, they broke in behind the giant screen and knocked down barriers and threw various objects at this spot, where numerous fans had already gathered to follow the match, who fled running from the area.
At one point, they managed to stop the screen broadcast after pulling out some cables, although the broadcast was later resumed, all amid a strong police presence by the Ertzaintza, which identified six people during the incidents.
At the scene was the spokesperson for the PP of Bilbao, Esther Martínez, who reproached these people’s attitude, some of whom were hooded. The Ertzaintza established a police cordon and the fans returned to the point where the match broadcast was taking place.
A flag burned in Eibar
In Eibar, hooded individuals burned a Spanish flag tonight and displayed banners in support of the Basque team and against Spain in the square where a giant screen had been set up to watch the World Cup final between ‘La Roja’ and Argentina.
Eibar, the hometown of Mikel Oyarzabal, a player of the Spanish national team, is one of the Basque municipalities where a giant screen was set up to watch the match.
The screen was placed in Unzaga square, where, before the match, graffiti appeared reading “Puta España” or “Espainolismoa borrokatu” (fight Spanish nationalism)
Also, at that same spot, they put up a banner with the messages “Inposiorik ez” (no impositions) and “gazte langileok espainolismoari aurre egin” (Young workers, confront Spanish nationalism), alongside a drawing of the Spanish coat of arms crossed out.
In this town, a mobilization of the Zazpi Baietz movement was also held this afternoon to demand the official status of the Euskal Selekzioa.
Unzaga square gathered thousands of fans and at one point, with the match already underway, some hooded individuals, from a viewpoint, lit flares and burned a Spanish flag. At that same spot, they placed a banner showing the Spanish and French flags crossed out, alongside the “Zazpiak bat” coat of arms and the message Gurea Euskal Selekzioa (ours, Basque team).
Additionally, that group, composed of about half a dozen people, displayed another large banner on a wall with the word “boycott” and the Spanish coat of arms crossed out.
The night of the final left another incident in the Basque Country with the arrest in Vitoria-Gasteiz of a man for assaulting an ertzaina when the autonomous police officers were responding to assist a person during incidents related to the World Cup match between Spain and Argentina, according to the Department of Security.
The alleged attacker of the ertzaina, who is 35 years old, was arrested for a crime of assault against an authority agent.
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