MADRID, 19 (EUROPA PRESS)
More than 35,000 people from different parts of New Zealand surrounded the Parliament located in the capital, Wellington, this Tuesday to denounce a controversial bill that redefines the rights of the indigenous New Zealand population, mainly Maori, the Police have reported.
“The Parliament building has reached its maximum capacity, as it is estimated that more than 35,000 people will participate” in the protests, the body announced in a statement published on its website, where it notes that an “overflowing crowd” has been redirected. towards the closed streets around the camera.
New estimates, however, point to around 55,000 attendees, according to ‘The New Zealand Herald’. Protesters displayed signs and banners and booed the project’s architect, David Seymour, the leader of the libertarian ACT New Zealand party, which is part of the coalition government, as he arrived at Parliament.
For her part, the co-leader of the Te Pati Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke Party addressed the crowd, encouraging them with the chant “Kill the bill”, after collecting 220,000 signatures against the initiative.
The historic measure seeks to redefine the founding agreement between the Maori people and the British Crown, a treaty that dates back to 1840 and which governed relations between the Government and indigenous people and tribes who were promised greater land rights to change of ceding governance to the British.
The interpretation given to the clauses of the Treaty of Waitangi, signed almost two centuries ago, still guides legislation and Government policies today, although the legislative proposal would undermine the rights of these populations.
For the Maori population, this proposed legislation presented by David Seymour, leader of the libertarian party ACT New Zealand, – which is part of the coalition government – undermines their rights as indigenous New Zealand people, a minority who make up 20 percent of the country’s 5.3 million inhabitants.
The New Zealand Parliament temporarily suspended the session during the initial reading of the measure after MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, of the Te Pati Party, symbolically tore up the text and began a ‘haka’ as a sign of protest.