Tens of thousands of people marched through the streets of Madrid with the Spanish flag on Saturday, November 18, to denounce the amnesty law approved by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez in return for support for Catalan separatists in parliament.
According to the prefecture, around 170,000 people gathered in Cibeles Square around the famous fountain of the same name in the heart of the Spanish capital to answer the call for demonstrations launched by the right.
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To the cries of “Sanchez, traitor,” “Sanchez in prison!” or “Catalonia is Spain,” participants of all ages tied or waved Spanish flags, others waved European flags distributed by the European People’s Party (EPP, right). . The leader of the People’s Party (PP, conservative), Alberto Nuñez Feijoo, and that of the far-right Vox party, Santiago Abascal, took part in the procession.
Daily protests
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, in power since 2018, who came second to right-wing leader Alberto Nuñez Feijoo in July’s parliamentary elections, was able to be reappointed on Thursday after negotiating in all directions to gain the support of regionalist groups. including the Catalan independence parties.
In return for their votes, essential to forming a majority, he accepted several concessions, including the imminent adoption of a highly controversial amnesty law for separatist leaders and activists who are being prosecuted in particular for their involvement in the attempted secession of Catalonia in 2017.
Since the amnesty deal was announced two weeks ago, demonstrators, including neo-Nazi groups, have demonstrated daily in front of the Socialist Party headquarters in Madrid. Some of them degenerated, leading to several dozen arrests.
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