‘The Kings have shown a lot of courage because the situation was very overwhelming’

Matias Prats He lived the Paiporta riots firsthand. The 73-year-old journalist was reporting on the visit of the Kings, Pedro Sánchez and Carlos Mazón when, suddenly, the lynching began. “We have experienced an enormous moment of tension of great violence and great tension. The Kings were walking along with the politicians, the president of the Government and the President of the Generalitat when some 200 or 300 people began to whistle, complain and throw objects,” Matías Prats said in the Antena 3 news.

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“People have thrown mud and bottles. Unfortunately, one of the first impacts of mud was on the Queen’s face. Several escorts quickly had to protect her with their umbrellas, but The King, despite the atmosphere, has said that he wanted to continue moving forward and he has continued moving forward and the Queen has not abandoned him. The King went among the people, he wanted to listen, and he had to seek protection because the screams did not stop and neither did the throwing. Fundamentally they were directed at the politicians who accompanied them,” explained the journalist.

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After this chronicle on Antena 3, the journalist spoke by phone with his colleague from laSexta, Ana Pastorwho showed in The goal the images prior to the lynching in which Matías Prats appeared speaking with the King. “Once he greeted the King and tried to get some statement, it all started. I have also received mud. I thought, ‘My goodness, where are they going to go’, and it started to rain mud, bottles, stones…”

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Despite this, the Kings continued with the visit, a gesture that, in the words of Matías Prats, “It contained a certain courage because the situation was very oppressive.” “There were many people with logical indignation. Maybe it wasn’t the right time to choose a view, I don’t know,” he reflected.

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The journalist acknowledged that he had never experienced something like this and that Don Felipe’s reaction asking citizens not to “pay attention to everything that is published because there is a lot of information poisoning” had been “brave.” “The King has shown great conviction in his purposes and a lot of courage in the sense of wanting to get closer to them. He is very aware of what is being suffered here, which is unspeakable, and He wanted to listen to them and give them the opportunity to complain to him“I think it has had a good reaction in that sense.”

© Antena 3