Hundreds of anti-monarchy protesters have been left red-faced after they accidentally smeared the Portuguese coat of arms in fake blood thinking it was the British coat of arms.
Around the country in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Canberra and Adelaide thousands of anti-monarchy protesters gathered during the National Day of Mourning for Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday.
Several of the demonstrators cut up, burned and poured red paint onto the Australian flag.
Others dipped their hands in red paint to symbolise blood and wiped marks on buildings to represent the harm suffered by Aboriginals from British colonialism.
But those who were protesting outside the building which houses the British consulate on Melbourne’s Collins Street embarrassingly smeared the red paint all over the Portuguese monarchy’s coat of arms.
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Several members of the public including Liberal MP and monarchist Tim Smith were quick to point out the embarrassing mistake.
“I hate to break it to the protesters… but 90 Collins Street is not owned by the Commonwealth and the protesters bizarrely smeared fake blood on the royal arms of the now defunct monarchy of Portugal,” he tweeted.
“It wasn’t the British Coat of Arms insulted yesterday, but Portugal’s historic one. Protesters either need to do some homework, or tell us why they hate Portugal,” a second person pointed out.
A third added: “So the woketards who protested yesterday smeared fake blood on the historic Portuguese coat of arms, thinking it was the British one… if you want proof that the left are nothing more than virtue signalling idiots, here it is.”
“What a monumental stuff up, they went and covered the WRONG coat of Arms which belonged to the Portuguese with fake blood. Idiots, goes to show the mentality and dare I say the IQ of these people,” tweeted another.
The Portuguese monarch was abolished in 1910 when it was replaced by a republic.
Controversial Greens Senator Lidia Thorpe was among those who dipped their hands in red paint and led the demonstrators gathered outside Melbourne’s Flinders Street Station.
“The Crown has blood on their hands, our people are still dying in this country every single day, the Crown’s boot is on our neck and we are sick of it,” she said to the crowds in Melbourne while wearing a shirt emblazoned with ‘Another day in the Colony’.
In Adelaide a 31-year-old man was marched out of Government House by police and was chanting anti-monarchy rhetoric as he left.
A mural of the Queen – which was painted near Sydneyham train station following Her Majesty’s death – in Sydney was painted over with the colours of the Aboriginal flag while hundreds gathered at Town Hall with anti-monarch posters.
Hundreds also gathered in Brisbane starting at the Queen Victoria Statue at Queens Gardens and continued through the city shouting anti-monarchy slogans and burning Australian flags.
“Our message to England and the Monarchy is to f–king burn,” one yelled through a megaphone.
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