Spain filled the streets of the Mediterranean city of Barcelona on Sunday, October 9th, with a double acclamation: stop the separatists and stop the country’s drift toward becoming an authoritarian banana republic.
Barcelona is not only one of Spain’s largest cities but also the capital of Catalonia. This region has been rocked in recent years by a politically strong, but ultimately minority undercurrent of separatism.
The regional government held a unilateral, illegal referendum in 2017 that tried to declare the region’s independence from the Spanish nation, though it ultimately failed. Then-president of Catalonia and now MEP in Brussels Carles Puigdemont quickly fled Spain and has remained a fugitive of justice ever since, even while other leaders of the referendum have been tried, convicted, and imprisoned for sedition.
The acting government led by Pedro Sánchez has made it clear it is willing to grant an amnesty to Puigdemont and other separatists in order to gain their parliamentary votes to form a government and stay in power for another four years.
Spaniards from Catalonia and many other parts of Spain, particularly other regions with a Catalan cultural identity, such as neighboring Valencia, took to the streets of Barcelona on Sunday to let him know that they were not willing to see their country torn apart for the sake of his political career.
According to organizers, 300,000 people participated, though the municipal police counted only 50,000. The event unfolded in a positive, peaceful atmosphere, with Spanish, Catalan, and even European Union flags waving to the background of music. Many participants also carried pictures and messages in support of Spain’s King Phillip VI.
“We are no longer the silent majority! Long live Spain and long live the King!,” Paco Vázquez, a retired socialist politician now critical of his own party, proclaimed in a speech delivered at the end of the march.
Organised by the group Catalan Civil Society, the event is a repetition of the demonstration held on the same day in 2017 to counter the separatist referendum held the week before and to manifest the Catalan majority that happily consider themselves also part of the Spanish nation.
This most recent protest, though, brought an additional complaint to the fore: Spain’s slow slide toward authoritarianism under the present government.
One marcher the Spanish newspaper El Debate spoke with carried a poster that read on one side “Spain: either a parliamentary monarchy or a Bolivarian republic,” and on the reverse side of the poster, written in English, warned that the European Union does not “forgive,” does not “allow” amnesties like the ones separatists intend to elicit from Sánchez.
The weakness of Sánchez’s political position—he governed for the last four years in a far-left coalition supported by the votes of regional parties—has proven to be a dangerous strength. To appease his Catalan and Basque supporters and mask popular dissatisfaction with his government, Sánchez has stacked the country’s high courts and manipulated national data, from opinion polls to employment figures.
In the most recent elections, held in July, his party came in significantly behind the center-right Partido Popular, but leveraging the country’s puzzle-like political landscape and his willing alliance with separatists is likely to keep him in power.
The result is likely to be more unrest and division in Spain.
Another participant at the march complained about both the civil strife separatists had stirred up between “Catalan brothers” even in regions such as Valencia and the Balearic Islands, and, again, Sánchez’s dictatorial tendency.
“Sánchez is a dictator. He’s doing the same thing as Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela or the Castro family in Cuba. We are on the wrong track,” she told the news site.
Spain’s near future will be decided in November when the parliament will vote on Sánchez’s proposed government.
For what it’s worth, an opinion poll by El Debate shows that 56% of the country would prefer repeat elections to another four years of Sánchez’s misgovernance.
