Spain's controversial public security law, which has been dubbed the "gag law" by its opponents, due to the restrictions it places on the right to protest, came into effect today, following widespread protests across the country.
Thousands of protesters marched in more than 30 cities across Spain yesterday on the eve of the new law, which will see demonstrators individually face up to €600,000 in fines for unauthorised protests near key infrastructure, including transportation hubs or nuclear power plants.
It also bans unauthorised gatherings around parliament and fines of up to €30,000 for public disorder offences, including neighbourhood demonstrations against evictions, reports Spanish news site The Local.
The law also allows authorities to fine journalists or media organisations who distribute unauthorised images of police and disrespecting a police officer could also be punishable by a fine of €600. Amnesty International says that police officers will be given "broad discretion without procedural safeguards to fine people".
The law was passed in March by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's conservative Popular Party after years of anti-austerity demonstrations prompted by Spain's financial crisis which began in 2008. The majority of these protests have been peaceful.
It will also enable authorities to deport migrants arriving at Spain's north African enclaves, Ceuta and Melilla - the only two land borders with Africa.
On Tuesday, Greenpeace demonstrators unfurled a giant banner from a crane with "Protesting is a Right" written on it, over Spain's parliament building, where protests are now banned under the new law.
The law has also drawn criticism from the Madrid Press Association, who say that it will make the practice of journalism "less free", as well as from Spain's main police union, which said in a statement: "It's not the best timing, since we're living in clear times of social, political and economic change, made harder when a planned law hasn't gathered the necessary political or social consensus."
The leading opposition Socialist Party has also said it will rescind the law if it wins the general elections later this year.
Amnesty International's deputy director for Europe, Gauri van Gulik, told Newsweek earlier this year: "A lot of normal people are afraid to do what they want to do and what they have a right to do... I am deeply concerned that this will have a chilling, stifling effect on demonstrations, especially spontaneous ones."
She added: "In one fell swoop, Spain is stifling freedom of expression and freedom of assembly."
However, the Spanish government has repeatedly defended the law. Jorge Fernández Díaz, Spain's interior minister, said earlier this week that the law should "only worry the violent ones", and Rajoy has said in the past that the law is not a restriction on fundamental rights, but in fact one that intends to "improve the free exercise of these fundamental rights".
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Felicity is a reporter for Newsweek Europe based in London. Twitter: @FelicityCapon
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