Follow the PP demonstration against Sánchez live
The attendees wave Spanish flags and not PP ones, following Feijóo’s instructions
MADRID, 8 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) – Thousands of people throng Plaza de España in Madrid this Sunday for the rally called by the PP against the “degradation” of Pedro Sánchez’s Government under the slogan ‘Mafia or democracy’.
The attendees, motivated as in other PP rallies by DJ Pulpo, have carried Spanish flags and umbrellas, with only some isolated flags featuring the PP initials, following Alberto Núñez Feijóo’s instructions not to bring Popular Party symbols to attract voters from other parties such as PP and Vox.
Feijóo has been supported by the regional presidents of the Popular Party, as well as by former Prime Ministers Mariano Rajoy and José María Aznar. Among the crowd was also the former president of the Generalitat, Francisco Camps.
Attendees carried banners with slogans such as ‘Democracy yes, mafia no’; ‘Neither mafia nor Sanchocracy, we want democracy’, ‘United for a better Spain’ or ‘Let Gepetto vote for you’, among others. Additionally, DJ Pulpo animated the assembled crowd with his music, criticising the “lies” of Pedro Sánchez’s Government which, he said, “shame everyone”.
In recent days, the PP leader has called to fill Plaza de España in Madrid on this 8J, appealing to Spaniards “tired of so much corruption, infamy, and lies”. “Sánchez is no longer needed, we must free Spain from this embarrassment,” he said this Saturday in Santander, where he committed to a “total clean-up” of the institutions if he reaches Moncloa.
THE SIXTH DEMONSTRATION CALLED BY FEIJÓO SINCE 2022
In recent days, the PP has deployed its machinery to try to make the demonstration a “success” and, indeed, buses have been chartered from various regions to achieve a mass gathering.
This Sunday’s demonstration is the sixth called by the PP since Feijóo became President of the PP, in April 2022. The previous ones were against amnesty and in defence of the equality of Spaniards and did receive Vox’s support, although Santiago Abascal’s team have distanced themselves on this occasion and sent no representatives, considering it a “partisan” act.
The PP chose the same setting of Plaza de España for another of its mobilisations. Specifically, it took place on 28 January 2024 against amnesty and the “concessions” of Pedro Sánchez’s Government to the independents, then drawing more than 70,000 people, according to the party at the time. However, the Government Delegation lowered that figure to 45,000 people.
The first PP protest took place in Madrid’s Plaza de Felipe II on 24 September 2023. The PP returned to the streets on 12 November of that same year by calling rallies against amnesty in all provincial capitals of Spain, with the Puerta del Sol one being among the most numerous.
Feijóo’s group protested again on 3 December 2023 in Temple of Debod, Madrid, a mobilisation marked by the meeting that weekend in Switzerland between the PSOE and Junts with an international mediator, Salvadoran diplomat Francisco Galindo, an expert in refugees.
Barely two months later, the PP called a new rally in Plaza de España on 28 January 2024, and the last took place on 26 May of that same year in the Puerta de Alcalá, in the middle of the European elections campaign.
