On Thursday night last week, the Podemos headquarters in Spain’s Murcia province was attacked with a petrol bomb, in an apparent act of far-right terrorism. Security footage shows the device being thrown by an individual through a smashed window, with a blaze then starting inside the offices. The slogans “rojos [‘reds’]” and “dynamite Podemos” were spray-painted on the outside walls.

“The ultras’ street terrorism will not intimidate us,” tweeted party leader Pablo Iglesias. “Against those using violence and those seeking to whitewash such violence [we will insist on]: democracy, freedom of expression and social justice.”

But there was also a political context for the attack. Murcia is today governed by the conservative Popular Party, with the support of the far-right party Vox; hence Podemos spokesperson Pablo Echenique termed the attack “a natural consequence of normalizing hate speech in the parliament and among certain media outlets.” Local MP Javier Sánchez Serna noted that this was the third time over the last year that these offices had been targeted by far-right groups — with both the Popular Party and Vox refusing to support a statement condemning the previous vandalization of the Podemos premises.