Tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets across Spain on Sunday to protest against acting Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s plans to grant amnesty to Catalan separatists. International news agencies report this Spanish media. An agreement for amnesty, and with it a new coalition agreement with Sánchez as prime minister, seems to have been reached this week, to the anger of many Spaniards. According to a recent poll, 70 percent of the population is against granting amnesty.
There is uncertainty about exactly how many people are demonstrating. According to the newspaper El Pais the largest demonstration takes place in Madrid. According to the authorities, there are 80,000 demonstrators there, opposition party Partido Popular (PP) says there are 550,000. In Seville, authorities estimate there are around 40,000 demonstrators on the streets, in Valencia around 24,000 and in the Catalan city of Barcelona 6,000.
In July, the right-wing conservative PP won the elections, but the party was unable to form a majority coalition. Sánchez was then given the opportunity to put together a cabinet with his socialist PSOE. For this he needs support from the Catalan independence parties, who in turn demand amnesty. Sánchez held talks with former regional president Carles Puigdemont, who has been living in Belgium since the illegal referendum for Catalan independence in 2017. He heads the Catalan independence party Junts.
There were also demonstrations earlier this week, when it seemed that the amnesty law would be introduced. A demonstration in Madrid, in front of Sánchez’s PSOE office, turned grim. Police used smoke bombs and shot rubber bullets. Spaniards also demonstrated in the rest of the country in front of local PSOE party offices.