Barcelona was covered with flags of Spain and Catalonia on Sunday to protest a possible amnesty. It was organised by the anti-separatist organisation Societat Civil Catalana, according to Reuters.
Pedro Sanchez – leader of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party – needs the support of the Catalan parties Junts and Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, which want to hold an unpopular amnesty in exchange for votes in parliament.
The march was also attended by Alberto Nunez Feijoo, leader of the opposition conservative People’s Party, and Santiago Abascal, leader of the far-right Vox party; Feijoo expressed his opposition to the amnesty as follows:
This is not an amnesty that seeks reconciliation. The only thing it seeks is to make (Sanchez) the president of the government.
Sanchez defends his policy intentions on Catalonia, including pardoning nine jailed leaders in 2021, and notes with extreme care that the 2017 crisis “brought nothing good”. The amnesty also affects 1,400 people who were involved in the independence struggle.
Isabel Martinez held a placard with the inscription “Spain for Sale” and said the following:
We cannot allow an amnesty because not all Catalans believe that these (separatists) should be pardoned. They want to live in conflict forever but we want to live in peace.
This may be the largest amnesty campaign in Spain since 1977. The poll confirmed that 70 percent of respondents are against the idea of amnesty per se.
