Outrage as Spain’s largest department store comes under siege from naked bodies

AN UNFAMILIAR and unexpected site appeared outside Spain’s largest department store today (January 1), causing a wave of outrage in the local Spanish community.

Here a group of completely naked women were outstretched on the floor in front of El Corte Ingles in Spain’s Alicante, with what looked like blood streaming across their bodies.

Those who witnessed the surprising scene voiced their fury on social media, with the controversial party Vox even expressing their dismay at the undressed group.

Posting a picture on Facebook, the party’s group asked: “Is it necessary for our children to witness these protests?”, evidently alarmed at the time and place the activists had planned their demonstration. They also stated that there was a police presence around the group, which seemed to anger the party even more that much needed public resources had been used to protect such an ‘outrageous demonstration’. 

The post received hundreds of shares and comments, with one claiming: “Its not normal that these women are lying on the floor as if they were dead and little children are passing and watching something they can’t even understand. Mind-blowing.”

https://www.facebook.com/vox.alicante/videos/pcb.1174174906122093/773209433157896/?type=3&theater

Another simply said the act was “Shameful” whilst one user responded and said: “As a woman I am ashamed to see this, long live the freedom of expression but not this. I find it to be ridiculous and it is not something I want my children to see.”

Others made light of the situation, stating “What a way to relieve a hangover” with another stating that they should be swept up with a broom and cleared from the streets with one person agreeing that the fire brigade should “shoo them away.”

Although it is not known exactly why this ‘naked protest’ took place, some believed it to be an action from a group of activists who wanted to give visibility to gender-violence in Spain. The cases of women subject to domestic violence across the country has risen to dramatic proportions over the last few years, with many groups hoping to show the plight of abused women in a range of demonstrations.

However, the person managing the Vox Alicante Facebook account disagreed, and said that they were informed by the police that the protest was against animal cruelty, an equally alarming issue where the growing number of abused animals is now being highlighted across the country. 

For those that simply do not agree that the protest was appropriate to be carried out in broad daylight on New Year’s Day, it has seemed to garner exactly the attention that it sought.