#BBCtrending: The Spanish mayor and the bra protest

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More than 500 protesters have tied a chain of bras across the entrance of a town hall in the Spanish city of Valladolid.

The idea began on Twitter, and is one of two anti-rape campaigns now trending in the country.

The demonstrators were calling for the resignation of León de la Riva, the mayor of Valladolid, following his comments in a recent radio interview.

Mr de la Riva, who has a history of making sexist comments, told the presenter he had qualms about being alone with a woman in case she falsely accused him of rape.

"Imagine you get into a lift and there's a girl trying to get it on with you. She gets in the lift with you, takes off her bra and skirt, and then runs out screaming that you've tried to assault her," he said.

His remarks caused outrage, and soon the hashtag #EscracheDeSujetadores began trending on Twitter. It has now been used more than 10,000 times.

Translating roughly as "bra protest", the hashtag has prompted exactly that.

It was created by Ada Colau, a well known social activist from Barcelona, who didn't know it would translate into Monday's real world protest when she first used it.

"It was a good way to sum up the indignation of women and of decent men in this country, but also it's a way of showing machistas like this mayor that they're not going to take away our dignity or our sense of humour," Colau tells BBC Trending.

The mayor's interview followed a string of controversial events in Spain, which have also generated a big response online.

When a Spanish judge dropped a rape case against five young men in Malaga last week, anger at the decision flared up on social media, and spilled over into live demonstrations across the country.

The hashtag #NoEstasSola, which translates as "You are not alone", has been used more than 40,000 times since Wednesday, and 5,500 times in the last 24 hours.

It is meant as a message of support for the woman who made the initial accusations.

"For all women who have felt fear, insecurity, or sexual assault at the hands of a man #noestasola," said one tweet.

"No aggression should go unanswered," said another, calling protesters to join a demonstration outside Madrid's Ministry of Justice.

The backlash was not simply in response to the case itself, but it was also fuelled by a number of unusual statements from Spanish officials.

The Mayor of Malaga asked locals not to draw attention to the case because there were more than 1,000 rapes in the country each year. The city should not be singled out as a dangerous place, he said.

Just weeks earlier, the Spanish government issued a controversial set of guidelines aimed at reducing the incidence of sexual assault in the country.

They advised citizens to keep their curtains closed and remove their first names from their letterboxes.

Critics were appalled by the approach, saying the guidelines shifted responsibility onto potential victims, rather than focussing on perpetrators.

Reporting by Sam Judah

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