After almost ten days of protests throughout the country and at the gates of Pedro Sánchez’s investiture, the Popular Party invokes the roar of the street. Hundreds of thousands of people have cried out this Sunday in the capitals of all the provinces against the amnesty and the pacts closed by the PSOE with the separatist and nationalist formations in exchange for their votes to remain in La Moncloa. The unanimous cry of the street, which coincides with the manifestos published by all sectors of Justice and the security forces and bodies and the warning from Brussels that it will be vigilant with the amnesty, has been heard in recent days in all corners of the country: “Spain has awakened”; “not in my name.” An outcry that has had its epicenter around the PSOE headquarters, especially in Ferraz, where thousands of people have gathered peacefully over the last week, despite the fact that the Police have had to charge practically every night in the face of the disturbances caused by radical groups. But the PP, far from supporting these protests in front of the socialist headquarters, has focused its efforts on a large mobilization that consolidates the steps of the successes achieved weeks ago in Felipe II (Madrid), as well as in the center of Malaga and Valencia, and hundreds of thousands of people from all over Spain show their rejection of the amnesty. The heart of the network of protesters that this Sunday took over the squares and avenues is located at kilometer zero of Spain, Puerta del Sol in Madrid. There, Alberto Núñez Feijóo and Isabel Díaz Ayuso participated in the rally accompanied by José Luis Martínez-Almeida and José María Aznar. The top brass of Genoa and the regional presidents of the PP attended the events in their provincial capitals: Cuca Gamarra in Logroño, Elías Bendodo in Málaga, Esteban González Pons in Valencia…
Alberto Núñez Feijóo spoke in Sol and summarized the objective of the demonstration and its horizon: “We will not remain silent until we speak in an election, because what is being done is the opposite of what we voted for. Why are they afraid to the polls?” And he asked to “build a great process of understanding, as in the Transition” and “not fall into the provocations” of the left, which tries to demonize the protests. “Let them know that they are not going to intimidate us.” Feijóo was especially harsh with Pedro Sánchez, who is expected to become president on Thursday. An intense harshness as a prologue to an investiture that will be of maximum polarization. Targeting the leader of the PSOE, he said in Puerta del Sol: “It is not the polls, it is the greed of a person [Sánchez] that has brought us here. He has overstated the electoral value of the independence movement. With 6% they cannot decide for 100% of the Spanish people. They have less support than ever but they have found a shortcut. I have always fought the independence movement, but at least they are going ahead. Sánchez is not.” And he points to the critics of the PSOE: “Thousands of socialists do not agree with their general secretary.”
During Feijóo’s speech, attendees in Madrid shouted for a general strike. “If it occurred to me to agree on what Sánchez is doing, there would be a great general strike in Spain,” responded the popular leader, who closed his speech again by pointing out the president: “Whoever arrives in disgrace will leave in disgrace.”
Before, the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, warned Sánchez that the PP will be in charge of “returning blow for blow”, while encouraging the protesters gathered at Puerta del Sol to “give the battle no matter how long it may be. And she warned that Sánchez “will take us down this path to a dictatorship if there are no checks and balances in power.” She “has underestimated Spain and Europe.”
The demonstration against the amnesty called by the PP has the support and presence of Vox, which describes the moment as a maximum emergency and calls for leaving aside the acronyms of the parties. Its leader, Santiago Abascal, and the entire apparatus of the formation join the mobilization this Sunday, and call to move after the demonstration to Ferraz to protest again in front of the socialist headquarters, which is still protected by the National Police.
“There are many of us who think that a coup d’état is taking place,” warned the president of Vox under the Bear and the Strawberry Tree, which is why he stressed that Spanish society must be in “permanent mobilization.” Abascal believes that Spain “is experiencing a coup d’état by Pedro Sánchez” who “is capable of granting amnesty to other politicians to perpetuate himself in powerNow, the reaction on the street organized by the PP comes at a particularly sensitive moment: just four days later after the PSOE sealed its agreement with Junts, on the verge of Sánchez’s investiture – which is expected to be held on Thursday and will pass the first vote – and on the same eve of the socialists registering the amnesty law in Congress.
The PP estimated that more than 500,000 were present at the Madrid mobilization, while the Government Delegation lowered it to 80,000 people.
The response to the PP’s call against the amnesty was massive throughout Spain. In Castilla y León, the Government Delegation estimated that around 75,000 were mobilized: Ávila: 2,500; Burgos: 5,000; León: 9,500, Palencia: 4,000; Salamanca: 21,000; Segovia: 4,000; Soria: 1,500; Valladolid: 25,000 and Zamora: 2,500.
In the Valencian Community, the Delegation has given the number of protesters: Valencia: 24,000 people; Alicante: 20,000 people and Castellón: 4,500 attendees. In all of them without incident.
In Andalusia, the Government Delegation in Andalusia reports that the estimates of attendance at rallies called by the PP in Andalusia, according to data collected by the National Police, are 131,000 people, divided as follows: Almería: 12,500; Cadiz:3,800; Córdoba: 15,000; Granada: 30,000; Jaén: 10,000; Huelva: 5,000; Seville: 40,000; Malaga: 30,000.
In Galicia the PP speaks of 30,000 attendees in the four calls. The largest were those in Pontevedra and A Coruña, with 10,000 attendees each, according to the party. In Lugo and Ourense they speak of 4,000 in each city.
In Palma, around 13,000 people attended, according to the organization.
In Zaragoza, some 40,000, according to the calculations of the National Police, packed the center of Zaragoza, Alfonso I Street and Plaza del Pilar this Sunday, to protest the amnesty law. Likewise, in the city of Teruel some 2,500 have demonstrated and in Huesca 3,500, according to the organizers.
In Murcia, some 35,000 people, according to the organizers, and between 8,000 and 10,000, according to calculations by the Government Delegation, have flooded the streets of the center, reports Efe. In Extremadura, some 6,000 attendees in Cáceres and 7,000 in Badajoz have taken part in the rallies, according to the Government Delegation.
In Pamplona, ??several thousand people, about six thousand, according to the Government delegation in Navarra, participated in the rally that took place this afternoon in the Plaza del Castillo. Around 2,500 people have gathered in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, also according to estimates by the Government Delegation, a figure that the PP raises to around 8,000.
In Oviedo there have been 35,000 people, according to the local police, and 6,000 according to the Government Delegation, who have participated in the concentration in the Plaza de España.
Also in Santander, 20,000 protesters, according to the PP, and 15,000 according to the Government Delegation, have filled the Plaza de Pombo and its surroundings. Logroño has also been the scene of a rally with thousands of people (25,000 according to the organizers).
