Tens of thousands of people brandishing the Spanish flag marched through the streets of Madrid on Saturday (November 18) to denounce the amnesty bill accepted by the President of the Government, Pedro Sanchez, in exchange for the support of 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 respond to the call to demonstrate launched by the right.
With cries of “Sanchez, traitor”, “Sanchez 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 ). The leader of the Popular Party (PP, conservative), Alberto Nuñez Feijoo, and that of the far-right Vox party, Santiago Abascal, were in the procession.
Daily protests
Coming second in the July legislative elections behind right-wing leader Alberto Nuñez Feijoo, the president of the government, Pedro Sanchez, in power since 2018, managed to be reappointed on Thursday after having negotiated in all directions to obtain the support of regionalist groups, 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.
Since the announcement of the amnesty agreement two weeks ago, protesters, including neo-Nazi groups, have demonstrated daily in front of the Socialist Party headquarters in Madrid. Some of them degenerated, giving rise to several dozen arrests.
