Several tens of thousands of people demonstrated in Madrid on Saturday January 21 against the left-wing government of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, with the support of the right-wing opposition and the far right. Attendees, many waving Spanish flags, demanded Sanchez’s resignation, with some showing a portrait of the prime minister crossed out “traitor”.
Some 30,000 people took part in the Plaza de Cibeles rally, according to estimates by the central government delegation in the Spanish capital. The organizers put forward the figure of 700,000 people.
The demonstration, organized at the call of right-wing civil society organizations, received the support of the People’s Party (PP), the main opposition party, and the far-right formation Vox, 2023 being an election year crucial for Spain.
The right is outraged by the government’s decision to abolish the offense of sedition, the main charge against nine Catalan independence leaders sentenced to prison terms for their role in the attempted secession of Catalonia in 2017. This offense of sedition was replaced by another offence, punishable by less severe prison sentences.
Conservatives also criticize a sexual violence law that has increased penalties for rape but unwittingly reduced sentences in some sex offense cases.
Conservatives will need Vox to govern
Speaking to the press at the start of the rally, the president of Vox, Santiago Abascal, denounced “the worst government in history” who, according to him, “divided the Spaniards and liberated the rapists and perpetrators of coups d’etat”.
PP President Alberto Nunez Feijoo, who has tried to move his party towards the center since his election in April, did not attend the rally but had encouraged PP members to participate.
Most polls give the PP the winner in the general elections which are scheduled for the end of the year, but they also show that the conservatives will need the support of Vox to govern. Local and regional elections are also scheduled for May.
Without a parliamentary majority, the government of Mr. Sanchez has been forced, since its formation, to negotiate with the Basque and Catalan separatists to have its laws adopted, which has aroused the anger of the right. The conservatives accuse Mr. Sanchez of having removed the offense of sedition to ensure the support of the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC, independence) in Parliament. The government replies that this provision of the law, archaic, should be replaced by another more in line with European standards.