For the second time in a row, the far right has taken its anger to the streets in Spain. A new tense demonstration took place Tuesday evening in Madrid in front of the headquarters of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s Socialist Party to oppose his bill for amnesty for Catalan separatists.
Nearly 7,000 demonstrators gathered, according to the prefecture, with signs saying “No to amnesty” or “Pedro Sanchez in prison”. Some of them threw projectiles at the police who dispersed them with charges and tear gas.
The Chamber of Deputies barricaded
Thirty-nine people were slightly injured, including 29 police officers, said Madrid’s emergency medical service, and six people were arrested for disturbing public order, according to a provisional report from the prefecture.
According to several Spanish media, some of these demonstrators tried earlier in the evening to get closer to the Chamber of Deputies, barricaded by the police who deployed a large device and a helicopter in the center of the capital.
The demonstration was called by several far-right groups and supported by the far-right party Vox, represented on site by the head of its parliamentary group, Pepa Millán, who assured that her party was coming to demonstrate “peacefully”. Pedro Sanchez for his part denounced on X Tuesday evening “those who, by action or omission, support the siege of the houses of the socialist people”.
On Monday evening, thousands of demonstrators also gathered in front of the headquarters of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) in Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia. In the capital, the police also dispersed some of the approximately 3,800 demonstrators by force and with tear gas.
A new mobilization on Sunday
The leader of the far-right Vox party, Santiago Abascal, who participated in the demonstration on Monday in Madrid, denounced on Tuesday the use of tear gas, calling on the police to “not respect illegal orders”, renewing his call to a “permanent mobilization”. Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the leader of the first right-wing party, the Popular Party, condemned these excesses and called on his sympathizers for a new mobilization on Sunday against the “scandal” of the amnesty project.
Pedro Sanchez’s controversial bill aims to provide amnesty to Catalan separatists prosecuted by the Spanish courts, in particular for their involvement in the aborted attempt at secession of Catalonia in 2017. This text should allow the outgoing Prime Minister to obtain the essential support deputies from the Catalan independence parties in order to be returned to power after the legislative elections of July 23.
Pedro Sanchez’s entourage remains optimistic about the imminent conclusion of an agreement with Together for Catalonia (Junts Per Catalunya), the party of Carles Puigdemont, leader of the events of 2017.