Several tens of thousands of people gathered today in Madrid at the invitation of right-wing parties, demanding the resignation of Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and early general elections.
Local authorities said that around 25,000 people had gathered, while protest organizers put the number as high as 400,000 demonstrators.
Those gathered, carrying Spanish flags, called for the resignation of Sánchez, whom they described as a “traitor”.
More than 100 different groups have called for these demonstrations, with the support of the main opposition, right-wing People’s Party, and the far-right Vox party. The rally was held under the slogan “For unity, dignity, law and freedom. Elections now!”.
Demonstrators held banners reading “Sanchez is destroying Spain” and chanted anti-immigration slogans.
Vox leader Santiago Abascal, the only party leader who participated in the demonstration, told reporters that “the government is destroying the Spanish, it betrayed them and it lied to them during the elections.”
“Today, whatever the government says, Spaniards are poorer than when Pedro Sánchez came to power, it’s harder for them to make ends meet,” the far-right leader said, also accusing the Sánchez government of contributing to a greater influx of illegal migrants.
Sanchez, in office since 2018, leads a fragile minority government that depends on the votes of Catalan and Basque separatist parties in parliament to pass legislation. His concessions to those parties cause tension and dissatisfaction among the right-wing.
