What Happened?
Thousands of demonstrators gathered in Madrid, Spain, on Sunday to protest Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s plans to negotiate with Catalan separatists.
Right-wing opposition groups organized the rally in Plaza de Colon, where 45,000 protesters waved Spanish flags and displayed signs demanding “elections now,” according to BBC and the New York Times.
“The time of Sanchez’s government has ended,” leader of the Popular Party Pablo Casado said at the protest, according to the New York Times.
Raquel García, 76, who was carrying a Spanish flag, told the New York Times “the government is giving many things to supporters of Catalan independence and is going to break Spain apart.”
In Context
The protest occurred as the government anticipated a vote Wednesday, Feb. 13, on its budget proposal. The result highly depends on support from the Catalan parties, which have said their votes are contingent on the independence talks, according to the New York Times.
These protests also occurred days before the start of a trial involving 12 Catalan leaders who were charged with embezzlement during a failed bid for independence from Spain in 2017, according to the Guardian.
Sanchez was elected as Spain’s prime minister in June 2018, representing the minority Socialist party. Since his party holds about a quarter of the seats in Parliament, Sanchez relies on support from the Podemos party, Catalan nationalists and other small parties to pass laws.
