Millions of Spaniards Take to the Streets Against Socialist Amnesty for Violent Secessionists

MADRID, SPAIN - NOVEMBER 13: Members of the police surround a group of demonstrators durin
Juan Naharro Gimenez/Getty
Frances Martel

Spain’s establishment right-wing Popular Party (PP) convened protests nationwide on Sunday, reportedly attracting millions of people, in opposition to a reported proposed amnesty for individuals involved in an attempt by the northern region of Catalonia to secede from the country.

The PP reported that nearly 3 million people across the country participated in the protests. Despite this, no major incidents were reported, nor did any reports surface of alleged “ultra” nationalists engaging in violence or derailing the events.

Eyewitnesses to the reports documented chants of “a united Spain will never be defeated” – a play on the socialist slogan “the people united will never be defeated” – and that, despite a conservative party convening the events, the crowd was made up of people of a variety of political backgrounds.

Spanish President Pedro Sánchez, a socialist, is reportedly negotiating a deal with Catalonian leftist parties to get them to support a coalition government that ensures his continued position as head of the parliamentary government. Parliamentary elections in July greatly weakened Sánchez’s Socialist Workers’ Party of Spain (PSOE) but did not give a majority to any other party, requiring the creation of a coalition government.

Multiple Spanish newspapers confirmed on Monday the veracity of a leaked PSOE legislative proposal on the amnesty, which would excuse “all acts related directly or indirectly to the denominated independence process developed in Catalonia,” including two unconstitutional referenda on independence in 2014 and 2017, violence tied to riots in support of seceding from Spain, and separatist leaders currently facing trial on charges of terrorism. The text claims those already convicted of terrorist acts would not be spared.

The Spanish newspaper ABC reported on Monday that the Spanish Parliament expects to inaugurate Sánchez for a new term on Wednesday and then debate the amnesty bill on Thursday.

Spain has a lengthy modern history of secessionist terrorism, particularly in the north, where the Basque terror organization Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA), which also sought secession from Spain, killed over 800 people and injured thousands during its nearly half-century-long existence. Spain’s Attorney General included Catalan separatism as a “domestic terrorism” movement in its 2021 annual report. As a result, the proposed amnesty has prompted widespread national outrage and fueled a wave of protests against Sánchez.

Members of the anti-riot police stand guard behind their shields during a protest outside the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) headquarters on November 13, 2023 in Madrid, Spain. Demonstrators have gathered to protest a deal struck by caretaker PM Pedro Sanchez that granted amnesty to people involved in Catalonia’s failed independence bid in 2017. (Juan Naharro Gimenez/Getty Images)

Sunday’s assemblies are believed to be the largest so far. The leadership of the PP estimated that 1 million Spaniards peacefully assembled against the amnesty in Madrid and another 2 million in the rest of the country, including in every regional capital in the country. The PSOE-affiliated government of the Madrid region claimed the true number of people at the capital protest was closer to 80,000, a number the mayor of the city, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, called “an insult to the intelligence of all of us who were there.”

The protests were massive in part because the center-right PP, which has lost significant support in the face of challenges from the conservative right, also counted on the support of Spain’s largest populist conservative party, Vox. While PP chief Alberto Núñez Feijóo was the featured speaker at the Madrid event, the head of Vox, Santiago Abascal, arrived early to the protest to attend the march with the general public and rally support for the PP’s event. Abascal led part of the march to the front of the PSOE headquarters in Madrid.

“There are many of us who believe that he [Sánchez] is attempting a coup d’etat and that, therefore, a permanent and peaceful mobilization must respond,” Abascal told reporters.

The protesters accused Sánchez of “selling out” Spain to violent separatists and of attempting to stay in power illegitimately after a free and fair election did not give him the power to control the presidency (in Spanish, the head of government is referred to as “president” although his role is more akin to what in English is more commonly referred to as a prime minister). In their speeches, PP leaders did the same.

“Spain is going to have a president who has purchased his inauguration in exchange for the judicial impunity of his associates,” Feijóo denounced, calling for widespread “legal protests anywhere in Spain” until the amnesty project is abandoned.

“They must know they will not intimidate us. This majority of Spaniards is no longer silent. They will not stop us. We will not resign ourselves to any democratic takeover. We will not shut up until we can speak in elections,” he added.

Between 30,000 and 40,000 people take part in a rally in Malaga organised by the Popular Party (PP) against the amnesty for Catalan independence leaders agreed between the PSOE and the Junta. (Guillaume Pinon/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Protest leaders have vowed to continue organizing peaceful mobilizations against the amnesty indefinitely. Solidarity, a labor union founded by Vox members, announced on Monday that it will call for a general strike against the amnesty beginning on November 24.

“We will not surrender the banners of social justice and national unity,” the call to a strike read in part.

Abascal’s Vox, meanwhile, announced that it would file a complaint against the amnesty before Spain’s Supreme Court, requesting an injunction against the debate expected to take place on the law in Parliament this week.

“What everyone can be sure of, above all the government and the socialist party, is that if this inauguration is achieved, there will be no return to normal. We will not forget what happened,” Abascal said on Monday. “We will not forget that this government seeks to ascend to power not just in an illegitimate way … but in a directly illegal way, trampling the constitution and modifying it through the backdoor and introducing a law of impunity.”

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