More than 60,000 people gathered in the heart of Madrid this Sunday to show their opposition to any form of amnesty for the leaders of the 2017 unilateral illegal referendum on Catalan independence.
An amnesty for both those convicted and the three fugitives of Spanish law—now MEPs in Brussels—is on the table to give acting Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez another term at his country’s helm.
People from all over Spain—transported in buses provided by the center-right People’s Party (PP)—attended the protest.
The first parliamentary vote on forming a government following July’s elections takes place this week. Sánchez is not the first candidate up for a vote but rather his principal rival, PP leader Alberto Nuñez Feijóo.
The protest in Madrid was a manifestation against a possible future Sánchez-led radical socialist government willing to grant any concession necessary to the country’s regional separatist parties in order to stay in power. It was also a way for Feijóo to show that he has popular support. The move is important for the PP’s short and medium-term future.
Feijóo will almost certainly not be able to form a government, but it is also possible the country will go to repeat elections as Sánchez too could fail. The election resulted in a politically divided landscape where forming any government is a matter of few votes.
“We won the elections as former Prime Minister Rajoy and Aznar did. For us, these two leaders are the best memory in Spain. We are holding a rally with more than 60,000 people,” he announced at the beginning of his speech.
Feijóo told the audience that he was prepared to lose the premiership in order not to put Spain in the hands of separatists.
In the charged but positive atmosphere, the audience applauded each sentence of the party leader, declaring him unofficially “presidente”—the Spanish term for Prime Minister.
Besides Feijóo and former prime ministers Mariano Rajoy and José Maria Aznar, the protagonists of the event included the popular president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, and the mayor of the city, José Luis Martínez-Almeida. Díaz Ayuso said,
Let Sánchez and his henchmen be clear: Puigdemont, Otegi, Rufián and Junqueras [the names of regional separatist leaders]. We are not going to resign ourselves, we are not going to give in, we will win, because we are on the side of reason, common sense, the Constitution, and equality.”
She was the PP regional leader who had most strongly opposed the central government’s draconian COVID measures, starting a political war with Sánchez. Her subsequent re-election, on a platform of cosmopolitan liberty delivered with a conservative edge, proved she had won that conflict.
Díaz Ayuso assured the audience that the PP are “experts in Sanchista lies,” and said, “Madrid is the region available to all Spaniards, where we do not manufacture identity or regionalist feelings. Madrid cheerful, alive, and happy is and will always be at the service of Spain.”
Ayuso has also stood up to Sánchez’ socialist fiscal policies. The latest example has been the judicial battle to maintain the regional tax scheme, which includes tax breaks for large fortunes designed to draw investment to Madrid. Much to the chagrin of Catalan separatists, despite the general economic malaise in Europe, Madrid is managing much better both economically and civically than the Catalan capital of Barcelona.
As often happens, her discourse was greeted by spontaneous cries of “Ayuso, presidenta” from parts of the crowd.
The morning event ended with cries of “Viva España” and the national anthem.
The next few weeks will prove if the PP has a chance of regaining the country’s governance.
