During the more than five years that the socialists have been in power in Spain, Spaniards have repeatedly taken to the streets of the nation’s capital to protest the government’s policies or even call for the resignation of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, particularly over his concessions to Catalan separatists. But on every occasion, the government’s official estimation of the number of participants in opposition protests grossly mismatches both those of the organizers and those of the Municipal Police.
As El Debate reports, the latest discrepancy occurred over the pro-life march that took place on Sunday in Madrid. Organizers said that 35,000 people attended, while the government counted just 5,000 people, despite the fact that some 500 pro-life and other groups participated and buses brought people from all over Spain to the march.
The day before, more than a hundred civil society associations organized a gathering in the Plaza de Cibeles that they believe some 400,000 people attended. The government delegation in Madrid, which provides the official figures from the executive branch, lowered the figure to some 15,000 attendees.
In contrast, for Women’s Day, March 8, the government delegation stated that 30,000 demonstrators gathered in the same space, the Plaza de Cibeles, but photos from both events show a much greater concentration of people in the space for the protest against Sánchez than for the women’s march.
Similar discrepancies occurred in previous years. For the farmers’ and ranchers’ protest two years ago, the government estimated a mere 100,000 protesters versus the 400,000 estimated by organizers. In November 2023, protesters filled the Puerta del Sol in opposition to the government. The Partido Popular, which organized the event, claimed a million participants—while the government only counted 80,000.
It is not surprising that the government would seek to downplay the opposition. In many of these protests, the dissatisfaction with Sánchez has been clear. Protestors have carried signs and chanted “Sánchez to prison,” “Sánchez sells the homeland,” and “traitor.”
In December 2023, El Debate requested the official reports from the government delegation, detailing how it arrived at the estimation for several of the protests that have taken place in recent years.
The reply it received from Agustín Torres Herrero, Director General of the General State Administration in the Territory—an agency under the Ministry of Territorial Policy that coordinates the delegations located in each region—was that “according to the information provided by the Government Delegation in Madrid, there are no such requested documents.”
In other words, El Debate concludes, the government simply invents the numbers of participants in each demonstration.
