The protest in Barcelona was, above all, a claim of the conservative Popular Party (PP) and its leader Alberto Nuñez Feijoo. The latter has just lost his Prime Minister’s investiture attempt in the Congress of Legislators in two failed votes, thus the PP’s aim was to undermine at all costs another executive that would head the current PM at the Palace of Moncloa.
Backed by the extreme VOX right and other minor conservative formations, slogans were heard in Barcelona against Sanchez and the whole range of leftists who support him.
The cries of “No to amnesty” and “Puigdemont to prison,” prevailed in the demonstration, with fiery statements from Feijoo and the head of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Diaz Ayuso.
Carles Puigdemont is the key figure of Together for Catalonia, but has been a fugitive from justice since he sought to force the independence and secession of this autonomous community in 2017.
After Feijoo failed to win the support of Parliament, Spain’s King Felipe VI commissioned Sanchez to be a candidate for investiture now.
Despite positioning second on July 23 legislative elections behind the Popular Party, Sanchez, in office since 2018, already has the support of the left.
The Socialist politician needs for keeping his post in the Moncloa Palace to achieve an absolute majority (176 seats) or, in a second vote, a simple majority, before November 27, difficult figures given the polarization with the right and the extreme right.
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