The protests against the amnesty in front of the national headquarters of the PSOE continue to lose steam. After last Thursday - the day on which it was known that PSOE and Junts had closed the pact - they reached their highest point, the volume of the concentrations has been declining night after night. Proof of this is that this Monday, just two hours after the socialists registered the bill, barely a thousand people gathered on the outskirts of Ferraz Street in Madrid before a police force that was also less numerous than on previous days. Police sources predict that tempers will flare up again on Wednesday when the investiture session begins.
The details of the amnesty made public this Monday did not serve to fuel the eleventh night of consecutive protests. It began, as in recent days, at the stroke of 8:00 p.m. praying the rosary and then gave way to the usual insults against the president of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the former president of the Generalitat, Carles Puigdemont, one of the people who will be benefited from the measure of grace. “That van for Puigdemont,” the protesters asked again. There were also homophobic words against the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, who this Monday reported a journalist to the Prosecutor's Office for “pointing out” on social networks some police officers who act in the protests “encouraging them to be publicly identified.”
Minutes after the protest began, and when it seemed that spirits were not taking off, the leader of the Spanish ultra-right, Santiago Abascal, appeared along with one of the most controversial - and most influential - journalists in the United States, Tucker Carlson, who was one of the defenders of the Assault on the US Capitol. One of the greatest references of the American right – he has more than 10 million followers on Twitter – uploaded a photograph to X with the president of Vox: “In Madrid ”. There was applause, and shouts of “president, president”, for an Abascal who continues to encourage citizens to take to the streets against the pacts that will help Sánchez to be re-elected president of the Government.
There were no more star appearances, beyond the presence of the also far-right Javier Ortega Smith, distanced from the current Vox leadership. Everything developed following the same pattern. Hundreds of people gathered shouting “Pedro Sánchez, son of a bitch” or “Puigdemont to prison”, until after the two hours of concentration, the majority began to dissolve. Before 10:00 p.m., not even half of the participants remained. At that time no incident had occurred.
The data reveal the loss of muscle in these protests, which are expected to be reactivated on Wednesday. According to the data that the Government Delegation in Madrid has provided each day, attendance on Thursday was estimated at 8,000 people. 24 hours later half, about 4,000, gathered at the intersection of Ferraz and Marqueses de Urquijo. Over the weekend there were 1,700 protesters on Saturday and 1,200 on Sunday. This Monday, according to the same institution, 1,200 people did so.
The Ministry of the Interior believes that the hot days will return on Wednesday and Thursday, days on which Pedro Sánchez's investiture will take place, as announced by the president of Congress, Francina Armengol. The device is now up and running. The surroundings of the Chamber began to be armored this Monday: agents from the Police Intervention Unit began to control access, comb the area and place fencing strategically. Traffic, for the moment, has not been restricted.
Starting Wednesday, more than 1,000 riot police – a larger number than those deployed, for example, during Princess Leonor's swearing-in of the Constitution – are expected to take to the streets of central Madrid in anticipation of unreported protests in the Race. of San Jerónimo or the Plaza de Neptuno, where on the weekend there was an attempted camping trip that was dissolved within hours. The threat of 15-M against the amnesty had to wait.
