Repression of the right to protest intensifies in 2025 with 380 documented cases

The Diagnosis of the Right to Protest in Spain 2025, produced by the Defender a quien Defiende platform, warns of a hardening of repression and the criminalisation of protest, with a particular impact on mobilisations in solidarity with Palestine, housing movements and antifascism.

The right to protest in Spain is facing a period of intensifying repression. This is highlighted in the new annual report, Diagnosis of the Right to Protest in Spain 2025, produced by the Defender a quien Defiende platform and presented on 26 March in Madrid. The report documents 380 cases in 2025, a 66.7% increase compared to the previous year.

This increase is driven not only by greater social mobilisation, but also by a hardening of the repressive response, which has grown both in scale and intensity.

Palestine, housing and antifascism: the most affected areas

Repression is mainly concentrated in three areas of mobilisation. For the second consecutive year, protests in solidarity with Palestine are the most affected, accounting for nearly a quarter of all recorded cases.

They are followed by housing and squatting movements, as well as the antifascist movement, which for the first time ranks among the most affected areas. Together, these three account for close to 60% of the documented cases.

Increased intensity in interventions and use of force

The report also points to a shift in the forms of repression, with an increase in more severe interventions. Detentions and violations of physical and moral integrity stand out, affecting a significant number of individuals.

This reflects a more intensive use of force and a deterioration of safeguards in the exercise of the right to protest, within a decade marked by the enforcement of so-called “gag laws”.

A more complex and sustained repressive model

The research also highlights the consolidation of multiple repressive pathways — criminal, administrative and policing — as well as the continued use of practices such as police infiltration, large-scale operations and the growing deployment of surveillance technologies.

These developments point to an increasingly sophisticated model of control over public space and social protest.

Voices from participating organisations

During the presentation of the report, participating organisations stressed that “repression is not only increasing, but also intensifying and becoming more severe”, in a context of growing social mobilisation.

They also warned of the psychosocial impact of these violations, which generate fear, emotional strain and demobilisation, affecting civil society as a whole.