The IBI protests don’t seem to want to go away, or at least their consequences. There have already been accusations that the Mayor is using the Policía Local to ‘get even’ with those that took part in the protests in front of the town-hall building and the following incident appears to back up that claim. Readers will have to judge for themselves.

The municipal police have opened up a fining process against one of the protesters that had gathered in front of the town hall, for breaking the local by-laws on noise. He could be fined anything up to 6,024 euros. Readers will remember that two locals had already been fined a few thousand euros between them for allegedly shoving the police chief aside at the doors to the town-hall building. These two men did not have to pay as the town had a whip-round and raised the money so that they wouldn’t have to pay it from their own pockets.

As can be imagined, the opposition parties are not happy with this latest development. The IU Councillor, Ángel Coello considers it a clear case of ‘persecution and punishment.’ In his opinion the Mayor and the Councillor for Citizen Safety are using the municipal police to their party’s favour.

He derides the fact that the police could consider fining the man for using a megaphone, which Sr. Coello considers a mere toy as it was bought in a all-for-one-euro shop. He contrasts the lack of response by the police for cases of noise being made in the early hours by bars etc with this act of amazing zeal to fine a man with a toy megaphone in broad daylight.

It is difficult to justify this latest development, as just about every protest march seen in any city all over Spain and Europe in general has one or several people with megaphones but to-date nobody has been fined for it.

(News: Salobrena, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)