The participants claimed the resignation of the Prime Minister. The right is outraged by the government’s decision to abolish the crime of sedition, the main charge chief having targeted nine Catalan independence leaders.
mo12345lemonde with AFP
Several tens of thousands of people demonstrated in Madrid on Saturday January 21 against the Prime Minister’s left government, Pedro Sanchez, with the support of the right -wing and extreme right opposition. Participants, many of whom brandished Spanish flags, claimed the resignation of Mr. Sanchez, some exhibiting a portrait of the Prime Minister Barré from the mention “traitor”.
Some 30,000 people participated in the Plaza de Cibeles rally, according to estimates by the delegation of the central government in the Spanish capital. The organizers advance the figure of 700,000 people.
The demonstration, organized at the call of right -wing organizations of civil society, received the support of the People’s Party (PP), the main opposition party, and the Far -right formation Vox, 2023 being a crucial electoral year for Spain.
The right is outraged by the government’s decision to abolish the crime of sedition, the main charge chief who targeted nine Catalan independence leaders sentenced to prison terms for their role in the attempted secession in Catalonia in 2017 . This crime of sedition has been replaced by another offense, liable to less heavy prison terms.
The Conservatives also criticize a law against sexual violence which has increased rape penalties but which has involuntarily contributed to reducing the sentences in certain cases of sexual crimes.
the conservatives will need Vox for Govern
Addressing the press at the start of the rally, the president of Vox, Santiago Abascal, denounced “the worst government of history” which, according to him, “divided the Spaniards and released the rapists and the authors coups “.
The president of the PP, Alberto Nunez Feijoo, who tried to develop his training towards the center since his election in April, did not attend the rally but had encouraged the members of the PP to participate.
Most polls give the winner PP in the general elections that are planned at the end of the year, but they also show that the Conservatives will need Vox support to govern. Local and regional elections are also scheduled for May.
Devoid of a parliamentary majority, Mr. Sanchez’s government has been forced, since his training, to negotiate with the Basque and Catalan separatists to have his laws adopted, which angered the right. The Conservatives accuse Mr. Sanchez of having deleted the crime of sedition to ensure the support of the Republican left of Catalonia (ERC, independence) in Parliament. The government retorts that this archaic law provision should be replaced by another more in line with European standards.