Two antimilitarists dressed as clowns climbed onto an Army tank this morning at the Expojove fair in Valencia and stained it with pink paint as a sign of protest. While they displayed posters with the slogans “War is not a game” and “Weapons do not educate.”
Meanwhile, other people have taken out banners in the vicinity of the tank while a part of the public booed them shouting “Now you clean it”, cheered on by the second deputy mayor of the Valencia City Council, Juanma Badenas (Vox), while half dozen Local police have arrived at the scene and taken the protesters away to identify them.
Sources from the Valencia City Council have subsequently indicated that both activists have been identified and have immediately been released, and have confirmed that a complaint will be filed against them for these incidents. Army sources, also consulted by EFE, preferred not to comment on what happened.
The protest wanted to demonstrate the “militarization” and “warmongering” of the new edition of Expojove – which opened this morning – for reserving a space for the Army, which has been criticized by the opposition parties, Compromís and PSPV.
Before the incident, both parties had already criticized the mayor of València, María José Catalá, for the presence of that tank in a children’s and youth leisure facility. PSPV councilor Nuria Llopis has stated that this military exhibition “is not correct” and that the previous government “was betting on the European green capital and a Christmas for children without ideology.”
In this sense, the Compromís councilor Pere Fuset has also expressed his discomfort for “putting conflict in a children’s environment above climate awareness.”
For her part, the mayor has claimed before the media that “security forces and bodies deserve public recognition” in environments like this and that “the people who take care of us not only deserve respect, but also visibility.”
“They deserve their traditional presence here and they wanted to return to Expojove. They are people who have a vocation for public service, who protect us all and deserve recognition,” Catalá explained.
