Thousands march in Madrid against premier and Catalan independence
THOUSANDS of Spaniards joined a rally in Madrid to demand that socialist prime minister Pedro Sanchez step down.
Many in the crowd that gathered in the capital’s Plaza de Colon waved Spanish flags. They chanted slogans in favour of the nation’s security forces and for Mr Sanchez to resign.
The conservative opposition Popular Party and the centreright Citizens party organised the rally, which was also backed by the upstart Vox and other marginal parties.
They say Mr Sanchez must resign for holding talks with separatists in Catalonia.
“The time of Mr Sanchez’s government is over,” said Popular Party president Pablo Casado, who asked voters to punish Mr Sanchez’s Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party in European, local and regional elections in May.
The political tensions come as a highly sensitive trial at Spain’s Supreme Court starts tomorrow for 12 Catalan separatists who face charges, including rebellion, for their roles in a failed secession attempt in 2017.
Mr Sanchez inherited the Catalan crisis from former prime minister Mariano Rajoy, the then-leader of the Popular Party.
Mr Rajoy proved incapable of stopping support for secession from swelling in Catalonia to roughly half of the region’s voters.
Mr Sanchez came to power in June promising to thaw tensions between central authorities in Madrid and the Catalan leaders in Barcelona.