Vox reports the assault 'by a left-wing radical' on a councilor in Catalonia

Antonio López, Vox spokesperson in Sant Andreu de la Barca, ended up in the emergency room on Sunday night after being knocked down by a shove. According to his party colleague Daniel Lafuente on X, the striker, "a left-wing radical," shouted at him, "I'm sick and tired of you all!" Immediately afterward, he hit him, causing him to fall and suffer a blow to the head that required ambulance transport.

López was hospitalized until five in the morning. He himself has announced that he will file a complaint for a hate crime. "That damn lunatic is going to lose his ponytail," López stated on social media.

Vox's secretary general and leader of the party in Catalonia, Ignacio Garriga, linked the attack to the "demonization" of the party in certain media and warned of "a surge in political violence" in recent weeks. "They must know that we won't take a single step back: neither ideologically nor with our activism," Garriga concludes:

A disturbing pattern

The incident isn't an isolated case. On the contrary, it reveals a pattern of political and symbolic violence that has been tolerated in Catalonia since the separatist decade. Since 2014, Mossos d'Esquadra have opened dozens of investigations into attacks on booths, rallies, or headquarters of constitutionalist groups.

The youth organization S'ha Acabat, for example, suffered up to three sieges at the Autonomous University of Barcelona during the past academic year. In fact, on October 1, 2024, several separatist supporters surrounded their information table. Meanwhile, the youth organization has already achieved several judicial victories against the public university, which has been complicit in most cases of this violence.

The same dynamic affects parties that, although also separatist, are outside the orbit of the separatist left. On January 25, a group linked to Arran, the youth organization of CUP, forcibly dismantled an Aliança Catalana booth in Barcelona's Les Corts neighborhood. As has now happened with Antonio López, an AC supporter fell to the ground, hit the back of his head, and was taken to Hospital Clínic.

Mossos arrested three individuals involved, who now face charges of assault and coercion. This, however, hasn't prevented media and parties from whitewashing this and other attacks. In the case of the AC booth, it should be noted that TV3 spoke of "fights" and "incidents" when the footage clearly shows an attack by the radicals.

We are, therefore, facing a pattern of low-intensity symbolic violence that becomes physical in electoral contexts or during visible events of other parties. The playbook is usually repeated. Verbal harassment, destruction of campaign materials, and, when there is physical opposition, shoves or blows.