ANTI-WAR LOBBY TARGETS BRITAIN

ANTI-WAR protesters targeted the British Consulate in Palma yesterday, mounting a noisy and graphic demonstration. Organised by the Platform for Democracy and Social Globalisation, protesters were urged to attend armed with a sauce-pan to bang, a practice which has become symbolic of protests in Spain over the past 18 months, while some covered themselves in red paint and acted out a bomb blast, lying prostrate on the ground in front of the Consulate, which is closed on Saturdays. The mid-day protest, apart from calling for an end to the “illegal, immoral and criminal” war, targeted the British Consulate because the organisation wanted to denounce the British government and the prime minister Tony Blair's role in the conflict, as well as that of the United States and Spain, the third key ally. Over the past few weeks, protest targets have been the Central Government Delegate and the United States Consular Agency. The organisation, which is planning further demonstrations next weekend, said that it was time a protest was staged outside the British Consulate in Plaza Mayor.

Manacor political office stoned

The Manacor office of the Partido Popular conservative party office was one of three political headquarters attacked with stones and paint in the early hours of yesterday morning. Local residents awoke to find “Asesinos” (murderers) painted across the front of the building as well as damage caused by stones thrown at the office.
Over the past few weeks, PP offices across Spain have been the target of hard line factions of the anti-war movement in Spain.
Earlier last week, the PP office in Minorca was also attacked.

“Not an election issue”

Partido Popular candidate for Balearic president, Jaume Matas, said yesterday that the war in Iraq must not be made a key issue at the forthcoming local elections on May 25. Addressing party members in Minorca, the ex-Environment Minister said “the war worries and concerns all of us, but this war should not be a deciding factor at the May 25 elections. “Here in the Balearics we have a number of local and regional problems which need to be addressed during the election campaign so that each party can present its alternative solutions to the region's problems, we must substitute local issues with the war which should be debated in a completely different context,” Matas said. He said that the present Balearic government is making a serious mistake in trying to hide the real issues from the electorate by focusing on the war. But, even a number of PP local councils last week voted in support of motions condemning the war.