Mayors of Barcelona and Cadiz disapprove of Spain’s National Day celebrations

THE celebrations in Madrid on Monday, October 12 have been deemed inappropriate by both the mayor of Barcelona and the mayor of Madrid.

The parade was greeted by thousands of supporters in the capital as almost 3,500 soldiers marched past and a flyby decorated the sky in red and yellow smoke, celebrating Spain´s flag.

However Ada Colau, Barcelona mayor, took a different view of Columbus’s legacy, which is the basis of the National Day celebrations. 

She posted a tweet to say, “Shame that a nation celebrates genocide and, on top of that, with a military parade that costs 800,000 euros.”

Jose Maria Gonzalez, Cadiz mayor, also expressed his views in a tweet: “We never discovered America, we massacred and suppressed a continent and its cultures in the name of God. Nothing to celebrate.”

The Andalucían leader of Podemos, Teresa Rodriguez, agreed with the two mayors in a tweet saying, “I think a national holiday should mark one’s own liberation and not the slavery of another.”

The conservative Prime Minister of Spain, Mariano Rajoy, has, in contrast, called Spain’s National Day “a day for everyone.”  The parade on Monday was presided over by King Felipe VI, who hosted the traditional reception at the royal palace in Madrid after the public celebrations.

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