Biggest protest in Spain against Catalan amnesty law draws 170,000

A massive demonstration took place in Madrid on Saturday, with about 170,000 people marching against an amnesty law recently passed by Spain’s Socialists as part of a government deal related to Catalonia’s 2017 separatist bid.

The protest, which is the largest in a series of demonstrations against the amnesty law, happened just two days after Spain’s Socialist Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, secured a four-year term with the support of Catalan and Basque nationalist parties in exchange for agreeing to the law.

Many of the protesters were seen waving Spanish flags and holding signs reading “Sanchez traitor” and “Don’t sell Spain”. They demonstrated against the law, which has been criticized by four judicial associations, opposition political parties, and business leaders for threatening the rule of law and the separation of powers.

Authorities estimated the number of demonstrators to be around 170,000.

Leaders of the opposition conservative People’s Party and the far-right Vox party, Alberto Nunez Feijoo and Santiago Abascal, also attended the march, which was organized by civil groups.

After the rally, scores of protesters walked along the side of a motorway towards the Moncloa Palace, which is the prime minister’s residence in Madrid.

The amnesty will apply to about 400 people involved in the 2017 independence bid, including separatists and police involved in clashes with activists. The independence referendum had been declared illegal by the courts, resulting in a major political crisis for Spain.

This amnesty will be the largest in Spain since the 1977 blanket amnesty for crimes committed during the Francisco Franco dictatorship, and the first amnesty law approved in the European Union since 1991, according to Spain’s CSIC research council.

Defending the law, Sanchez has argued that an amnesty would help to defuse tensions in Catalonia. However, protesters, including neo-Nazi groups, have been holding rowdy demonstrations outside the Socialist headquarters in Madrid for 15 nights consecutively since the deal was announced.

In a survey by Metroscopia in mid-September, around 70% of respondents, including 59% of Socialist supporters, expressed opposition to the idea of an amnesty.

(Reporting by Graham Keeley; Additional reporting by Susana Vera, Raul Cadenas, Silvio Castellanos; Editing by Clelia Oziel and Mike Harrison)