2023-11-18 18:07:00
“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) .
“What Pedro Sánchez wants is to cut Spain into pieces,” protests Maria Angeles Galan, a 65-year-old retiree from Madrid, who has participated in other anti-amnesty demonstrations in recent days.
For her, the Prime Minister opened the way to the dismantling of the country: “let there be the Basque country on one side, Catalonia on the other, and say that nothing happened, and that the judges don’t matter.”
“He’s not a president, he’s a delinquent,” she shouts again, repeating one of the slogans chanted during the rally.
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.
“RIP Spanish democracy”
“They know that they do not have the votes to do what they are doing. That is why we are telling them with this demonstration,” declared Alberto Núñez Feijóo, accusing Pedro Sanchez of raising the Spaniards “the 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.
Mariana (who does not wish to give her last name), a 51-year-old entrepreneur, came specially from Zaragoza (northeast) to protest “against the amnesty”: “I believe the fight is starting now. It has to be know, it’s a message sent to Europe”, she says, pointing to the European flag that her companion is holding at her side.
Ten days ago, Brussels actually demanded explanations from Madrid on this amnesty bill, indicating that it had “been contacted on this subject by a large number of citizens”.
“RIP Spanish democracy 1978-2023”, could be read on a large Spanish flag while other signs called on Europe for help: “Europe, help us”, “For the rule of law, SOS the EU”, “Democracy for sale”.
“Where are these socialists?” shouted the assembled crowd when a speaker at the microphone mentioned the rejection by part of the left of the measure.
Luis Garrido, a 65-year-old retiree, calls himself a “socialist but not a supporter of Sánchez.” For him, the Prime Minister should never have agreed to be reappointed “at this price” and that “Spain be divided in this way”.
His wife Rosario Rodriguez, 62, regrets that “we are all called fascists: my husband is on the left”, but she promises to “continue to take to the streets, it’s the only way we have to defend ourselves “.
For two weeks, demonstrations have taken place every evening in front of the headquarters of the Socialist Party in Madrid, and some of them have degenerated, giving rise to several dozen arrests.
11/18/2023 17:06:08 – Madrid (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
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