“For the rule of law, SOS the EU. » Tens of thousands of people gathered in Madrid on Saturday to denounce the future amnesty law for Catalan separatist leaders and activists, which allowed the left-wing government to be renewed. Around 170,000 people, according to the prefecture, gathered in Cibeles Square, around the famous fountain of the same name, in the heart of the Spanish capital, where Real Madrid supporters meet in the event of victory, to respond to the call to demonstrate launched by the right.
To the cries of “Sánchez, traitor”, “Sánchez, son of a b****”, “Sánchez in prison!” ” or “Catalonia is Spain”, the participants, of all ages, had tied on their shoulders or waved Spanish flags, and others brandished European flags distributed by the European People’s Party (EPP, right ).
Pedro Sánchez was reappointed as head of the country on Thursday
Coming second in the July legislative elections behind right-wing leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo (PP), socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, in power since 2018, managed to be reappointed on Thursday after having negotiated in all directions to obtain the support of parties regionalists, including the Catalan independence parties.
In exchange for their votes, essential to the formation of a majority, he accepted several concessions, including the upcoming adoption of a very controversial amnesty law for separatist leaders and activists prosecuted in particular for their involvement in the attempt to secession of Catalonia in 2017. “They know they don’t have the votes to do what they are doing. This is why we are telling them with this demonstration,” said Alberto Núñez Feijóo, accusing Pedro Sanchez of raising the Spaniards “against each other”.
Also present at the demonstration, the leader of the far-right Vox party Santiago Abascal considered that this law was “as serious as a coup d’état”. The two leaders did not appear alongside each other, although Mr. Feijóo tried in September to be inaugurated as prime minister with the support of Mr. Abascal, without managing to obtain a majority in parliament.