In Spain, rights protest against the amnesty plan for Catalan independence leaders

Under the scorching sun, a wave of red and gold flags flooded the Piazza Colon and adjacent streets in central Madrid on Sunday 13 June. “Sanchez’s resignation”, “No to grace”, “It is not magnanimity, it is treason” Behind these slogans, thousands of people – about 25,000 according to the National Police, and 125,000 according to the Municipal Police – expressed their anger at the amnesty that Pedro Sanchez’s socialist government intends to grant to the nine Catalan leaders convicted in 2019 of pardon charges. Sedition carries sentences of between 9 and 13 years in prison, after a brief attempt to declare independence unilaterally in October 2017.

“What they have done is nothing less than a coup, and this cannot be condoned: we must stand up for order and respect for the law,” Says Maria, a 53-year-old lawyer who came with her 20-year-old daughter and 17-year-old son, who wear the Spanish flag on their backs like a cloak. “There’s enough of this government blackmailing the separatists: they serve their sentence.”Fran Pinilla, a 25-year-old insurance agent, adds. “If pardon is granted, Sanchez will go down in history as the greatest traitor in the history of Spain”Jose Maria Gomez, 70, who holds a sign against the CEO, concludes.

Unpopular decision قرار

Nearly 61% of Spaniards oppose the government’s amnesty plan, according to a poll published in the conservative daily newspaper. the world 7 June. Even among socialist voters, more than 52% would oppose it. An electoral cost that Mr. Sanchez appears prepared to bear. “The cost would be to leave things as they are: coded”, he said on May 31.

For weeks, the issue of pardon requests – filed last year by lawyers and associations close to separatists imprisoned by the government – have monopolized and sparked public debate in Spain. On May 25, Pedro Sanchez resumed “constitutional values” from “Concord and Dialogue” and request a disqualification “Vengeance and revenge”to justify his initiative.

On the other hand, the government decided to pave the way for raising more than one possibility of a prison sentence, by wanting to start “new stage”And the “wound healing” And to encourage “live together” in Catalonia. On the other hand, the opposition bloc – the People’s Party (PP, right), Liberal Ciudadanos and the far-right Vox – accuses her of ‘Selling Spain to the separatists’ to stay in power.

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