Demonstrators roared in triumph when they learned that organisers had cancelled the stage before the riders arrived, chanting “Palestine wins this Vuelta”.
“Boycott Israel”, “It’s not a war, it’s a genocide”, “No more deaths of innocent children”, they shouted while swamping the street, whistling and waving red, green, black and white Palestinian flags.
A spokesman for the central government representation in the Madrid region told AFP that 100,000 people had taken part in the pro-Palestinian protests, adding that two people had been arrested.
The unrest was the culmination of pro-Palestinian activism against Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza, with protests disrupting the three-week race on several occasions.
Even before the final day, the race organisers had had to shorten some stages and demonstrators had caused crashes after bursting on to the course.
Several members of the leftist Government have publicly supported the movement in a country where support for the Palestinian cause is strong.
Sanchez made his first public comments on the row today, saying before the final stage that “Spain today shines as an example and as a source of pride”.
The country was “an example to an international community where it sees Spain taking a step forward in the defence of human rights”, he told a Socialist Party gathering in the southern city of Malaga.
Israel was swift to denounce his comments.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar called Sanchez and his Government “a disgrace” to their country, accusing the Spanish PM of “encouraging the protesters to take to the streets” of Madrid through “his incitements”.
‘International embarrassment’
The right-wing opposition Popular Party (PP), which runs the Madrid region and the Spanish capital’s council, also reacted furiously.
Party leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo’s response on social media was scathing after the prestigious cycling event ended with police charging at protesters and firing tear gas.
“The Government has allowed and induced the non-completion of the Vuelta and, in this way, an international embarrassment televised worldwide,” he said.
The PP head of the Madrid region, Isabel Diaz Ayuso, wrote on X that Sanchez “becomes directly responsible for any altercation that happens ... what damage to our sport and our country!”
And the city’s Mayor Jose Luis Martinez-Almeida said: “What has happened today in Madrid is the fruit of hate and violence that have been irresponsibly encouraged in recent days by leaders from the left”.
At the other end of the political spectrum, far-left Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Diaz hailed Spanish society for “giving a lesson to the world”.
“Israel cannot compete in any event while it continues to commit a genocide,” she wrote on Instagram, days after the Israeli Government barred her from entry for her criticism of the war in Gaza.
Israel-Premier Tech, owned by Israeli-Canadian property developer Sylvan Adams, is a private outfit and not a state team, but was hailed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for continuing to compete despite the vehement protests.
“It’s a way of making visible internationally that we are against the genocide in Gaza,” protester Rosa Mostaza Rodriguez, a 54-year-old teacher, told AFP in Madrid.
Oskar Villamizar Dussan had enjoyed the sporting spectacle but sympathised with the activists.
“I am not against it, they are right, this world is a little bit crazy,” the 53-year-old gardener from Colombia told AFP.
-Agence France-Presse
