Thousands of people took part in an anti-government protest in Madrid demanding snap general elections as the country’s socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, faces a series of corruption charges involving his family, his party and his administration.
Sunday’s protest, which Spain’s conservative People’s Party (PP) called “This is it: mafia or democracy?” One of Sánchez’s closest former allies, former Transport Minister José Luis Ábalos, was held three days after being remanded in custody by a judge investigating an alleged bribery-contract scheme.
The PP put attendance at 80,000, while the central government representative in the region estimated that half the people came to the rally at the Debod temple in the center of the capital.
The PP’s leader, Alberto Núñez Fizeau, described the legislature as “absurd” and said it could not be allowed to continue. He said Ábalos’s detention before trial proved Sánchez’s style of politics – labeled Sanchismo – Was rotten. ,sanchismo This is political, economic, institutional, social and moral corruption,” Feiju told the crowd.sanchismo He is in jail and needs to get out of the government.”
Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the populist PP chairperson of the Madrid region – whose boyfriend is to be prosecuted on charges of tax fraud and document falsification – went further. In a particularly fiery speech, he attempted to invoke the ghost of the defunct Basque terrorist group ETA, and said that Sánchez had given aid to Basque nationalists who supported his government.
“Eta is preparing its attack on the Basque Country and Navarre, while supporting Pedro Sánchez,” he said. “Tell me that’s not true. But there is no greater moral corruption and no greater betrayal of Spain.” Eta gave up its armed struggle for independence in 2011 and formally disbanded itself seven years ago.
Spain’s President and Justice Minister Félix Bolaños said the PP and the far-right Vox party – which did not take part in Sunday’s demonstration – were essentially one and the same and were competing to see who could “say the most insulting things about the prime minister”.
Sanchez, who came to power in 2018 after using a no-confidence vote to topple the corruption-ridden government of one of Feijoa’s predecessors, has vowed to press ahead despite the spread of corruption allegations against his circle and recent judicial setbacks.
On Monday, her Attorney General, Alvaro García Ortiz, resigned after being found guilty by the Supreme Court of leaking confidential information about the tax case of Ayuso’s boyfriend.
The sentencing of Spain’s top prosecutor has further intensified the debate over the politicization of the judiciary and comes as an investigation into corruption allegations involving Sanchez’s wife and her brother continues.
While the prime minister has dismissed those claims as politically motivated smears, in June he ordered his right-hand man, Santos Cerdán, to resign as organizational secretary of the Socialist Party after a Supreme Court judge found “concrete evidence” of Cerdán’s possible involvement in taking bribes on public contracts for sanitary equipment during the Covid pandemic. Abalos and an associate, Koldo Garcia, are also accused of being involved in the illegal enterprise.
Cerdán, Ábalos and García all deny any wrongdoing and insist they are innocent.
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