Conflicts & War

Right-wing protests call for end to Sánchez government in Spain

Barcelona, Spain, Jan 22 (EFE).- Hundreds of supporters of Spain’s right-wing parties, including the far-right Vox, demonstrated in Barcelona on Sunday against the left-wing coalition government of prime minister Pedro Sánchez.

The conservative People’s Party of Catalonia (PPC), the liberal Ciudadanos (Cs), and the conservative Valents were the other right-wing parties represented at the rally, which came a day after tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Madrid to protest the government’s removal of the crime of sedition from Spain’s penal code.

That decision meant that Catalan pro-independence leaders who had been found guilty of sedition for organizing an unsanctioned referendum independence referendum in 2017 had the charges against them dropped.

The law change has been heavily criticized by conservative and right-wing parties, which view it as an appeasement to Catalan separatists. Sánchez’s minority coalition government relies on smaller regional parties, including separatist outfits, to pass legislation through parliament.

Vox leader Ignacio Garriga took part in the protests and called for an “urgent alternate” to “remove” Sanchez from power, accusing the latter of “assaulting” democracy and carrying out a “coup” against state institutions with his pacts with the ERC, a pro-independence Catalan party.

In a statement, Garriga said he would continue to “fight the battle” against Sánchez, whom he accused of openly working against Spaniards with his “totalitarian policies and liberticidal laws.”

PPC chief Alejandro Fernandez, meanwhile, accused Sánchez of pitting Spaniards against each other with his agreements with separatists.

Demonstrators waved Spanish flags during the rally in Barcelona’s Sant Jaume square, and held photos of Sánchez in prison uniform, as well as banners with slogans like “For the constitution” and “Peaceful civil disobedience.”EFE

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