In the absence, for the moment, of that electoral super Sunday that hovers over every political conversation in Madrid after the regional collapse recorded by the PSOE in the recent elections, the right has celebrated its own reivindicative super Saturday this Saturday in which several tens of thousands of people marched between Colón Square and the Victory Arch, in Moncloa, convened by Sociedad Civil Española to demand the resignation of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez.
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The indictment of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has arrived just in time to turn a demonstration called weeks ago into a total protest against the PSOE of yesterday and today. A kind of amendment to Sanchism, Zapaterism and, ultimately, to everything that a part of the right and far-right have identified for years with the drift of the Spanish left.
References to Sánchez’s resignation were thus mixed with banners against same-sex marriage, criticisms of the comprehensive law against gender violence for supposedly “breaking the presumption of innocence,” calls to outlaw Bildu for having allowed “ETA members to enter institutions,” or reproaches to the Historical Memory Law for the “liberation” of the Valley of the Fallen. Venezuelan flags also appeared to denounce the alleged “connivance of the PSOE with Chavismo” and messages in favor of “national priority” against the regularization of immigrants.
Everything ended up converging in the same idea. That the indictment of the former socialist president has opened a perfect opportunity to condense in a single protest all the outstanding issues that a part of the right has with the PSOE of the last two decades.
Amid shouts of “to Moncloa!”, the march advanced without significant incidents through various streets in central Madrid, accompanied by whistles, drums, and megaphones. Incidents were only recorded when the Police blocked the way to Ferraz Street—to prevent some attendees from diverting towards the PSOE federal headquarters—and in Moncloa.
Isolated protests occurred at both points, but the situation quickly deflated except for a group of violent individuals who temporarily blocked traffic on the A-6 highway, concentrating near the La Moncloa Palace, which forced the Police to send reinforcements to control the gathered people, leading to some clashes that resulted in three arrests and seven officers injured.
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Vox, omnipresent with its green fan
The representation of the Popular Party was led by its spokesperson in the Senate, the senator for Ávila Alicia García, who told the media that Spaniards have said “enough” to waking up every day to a “new corruption plot,” with the President of the Government “at the center” of all suspicions. García insisted on placing Pedro Sánchez as the “political responsible and cover-up” of the various cases that, according to her, surround the Executive.
A strong representation of Vox also attended the call, with its leader, Santiago Abascal, at the forefront, accompanied by other party leaders such as MEP Jorge Buxadé, behind a banner that read “Removing Sánchez is also a national priority.” In statements to the media, Abascal said that Spain is “kidnapped by a corrupt mafia” that is impoverishing citizens and “promoting a migratory invasion,” while accusing the President of the Government of trying to delay the electoral call to “perpetuate himself in power.”
The heat shaped the scenery of the protest. Among the demonstrators were hats, scarves, sunglasses, and all kinds of inventions to endure the more than 30 degrees that struck Madrid at midday. But the star accessory ended up being Vox’s green fan, omnipresent throughout the march thanks to distribution organized by party militants, who took advantage of the almost total absence of PP symbols to visually take over the mobilization.
“It’s curious that they now come out to try to claim the success of the mobilization when on other occasions they didn’t want to come out,” lamented some PP sympathizers critical of Vox’s prominence. But the truth is that the absence of a visible PP structure has left Santiago Abascal’s party practically free to capitalize on the protest’s anger.
The march confirms that the street is once again a space of political competition. Against the coalition government, but also a struggle on the right where Vox today has scored a big win in visibility against a PP somewhat more absent than usual.
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