Thousands protest
MADRID: Tens of thousands of people waving Spain’s redandyellow flag demonstrated in Madrid early yesterday to oppose any concessions by the Government to Catalan proindependence parties and to call for early elections.
Demonstrators chanting ‘‘Spain! Spain!’’ and ‘‘We want to vote!’’ filled the Plaza de Colon in the city centre in the largest protest Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has faced in eight months in office.
The opposition centreright and farright parties called the rally, seeking to make a show of force against Sanchez by capitalising on anger with Catalonia’s separatist leaders and the Government’s efforts to establish a dialogue with them.
Around 45,000 people attended, officials said.
The Government’s proposal last Tuesday to appoint a rapporteur in talks among political parties to address the Catalan independence crisis galvanized the opposition, which has deemed it a betrayal and a surrender to pressure from Catalan separatists.
‘‘The time of Sanchez’s government has ended,’’ Popular Party leader Pablo Casado told reporters before the protest.
Sanchez, who replaced a conservative government last June in a vote of confidence, holds just a quarter of the seats in parliament and relies on backing from antiausterity party Podemos, Catalan nationalists and other small parties to pass laws.
The Government is squeezed on both sides of the Catalan issue: Deputy Prime Minister Carmen Calvo said on Friday the talks were on track to fail because Catalan proindependence groups had rejected the Government’s proposed framework. The Catalan groups want a referendum on independence included on the agenda, which Madrid will not accept.
The protest took place two days before the start of the trial of 12 Catalan independence leaders, who face up to 25 years in prison on charges of rebellion and misuse of public funds for their role in a failed secession bid from Spain that they are accused of spearheading in 2017. — Reuters