The 2019 Judas Burning festival in Coripe has featured the former president of the Generalitat de Catalunya Carles Puigdemont, whose figure has been shot and burned as an example “of what is negative for society”.
Characters such as Fidel Castro or, more recently, Inaki Urdangarin, Rodrigo Rato, Miguel Carcano or little Nicolas have embodied Judas de Coripe, although with less repercussion when social networks did not exist.
It is a festival of National Tourist Interest that already in 2018 caused a lot of controversy, when Movement Against Intolerance filed a complaint against the organizers for the alleged racist undertone of the party, since the burned figure then represented the alleged murderer of the Almerian child Gabriel Cruz , Ana Julia Quezada.
The mayor of Coripe, Antonio Perez , and his councilor for Celebrations, Irene Garcia , had to testify accused of an alleged hate crime, although the case was finally filed.
With the yellow ribbon
In this 2019 Puigdemont has been the involuntary protagonist personifying “a character that has been characterized in the previous 365 days for being especially negative for society”, according to the organizers of the party.
The figure with the image of the former Catalan president wore his typical hairstyle, dark suit, a yellow bow and an estelada as a cape, and has been burned after being shot to the cheers of the people who filled the town square.
All this within the framework of Resurrection Sunday in Coripe, one of the most important days for the town with the tradition of Judas, an appointment in which, for the occasion, the Orchard of Olives is recreated through which the procession passes of the Risen Christ organized by the Parish of San Pedro and, once it is finished, the burning of the Judas takes place.
The festival culminates when the Judas is taken to the square accompanied by the gunmen, the music band and big heads, and after being hung from a fig tree, placed next to the Church for the occasion, he is shot with live ammunition, until it begins to burn and is burned in its entirety.
The organizers have stressed that it is not a party to create controversy , but that it symbolizes “burning something negative”, although they have admitted the echo that this year’s decision may have.
Puigdemont accuses the PSOE of participating in “an act of hate”
In a note on Twitter, Puigdemont lamented “that the PSOE participates in such a visceral and inhuman act of hate”, and has maintained that his commitment is independence , democracy and freedom, and that none of them deserves to be shot in a civilized society, in his words.
Today in a town in Spain, ruled by the PSOE, they decided to shoot and burn a doll that represented my person, and that carried a clearly visible yellow lake. They did not want to shoot me and burn me, they just wanted to make fun of the struggle for the freedom of prisoners and exiles.
– Carles Puigdemont (@KRLS) April 21, 2019
Puigdemont explained that the doll wore a “clearly visible” yellow ribbon, and stressed that at the event they not only wanted to shoot him but, in his opinion, they wanted to mock the struggle for the freedom of pro-independence prisoners and those abroad.
L’Espanya of 155 and of “go for them” has engendered this attitude. They are directly responsible for their promoters and guarantors. Com ho son of the deteriorated image of Spain. #LlibertatPresosPoliticsiexiliats #FreeTothom @JuntsXCat
— Carles Puigdemont (@KRLS) April 21, 2019
He has stressed that he normally respects the signs of irony and sarcasm that he considers to be part of freedom of expression, but he has recognized that in this case it is not so : “This one, unlike the others, I cannot respect, out of personal dignity and democratic decency,” he said.
