Spain’s main opposition party, the centre-right People’s Party’s (PP), held a protest in Madrid under the slogan “Mafia or Democracy” that organisers said attracted 100,000 participants.
The event on June 8 was organised to demonstrate against the government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE), against whom multiple alleged corruption and undue-influence scandals were made.
The authorities claimed 50,000 demonstrators took part while the organisers said there were more than 100,000 participants.
Modern history Professor Fernando Martins, of Évora University, was sceptical regarding the success of the protest: “So long as the far-left and the separatist parties support the government of Pedro Sánchez, there will be no change in the political status quo, regardless of more or fewer demonstrations.
“The government controls, directly or indirectly, a good portion of the mainstream media, managed to gain control of the Constitutional Court and also exerts influence over the Public Prosecutor’s Office, hampering legal inquiries into governmental or PSOE corruption,” he said.
The demonstration was called for after allegations of a recent scandal affecting the government: PSOE activist Leire Díaz was allegedly recorded offering to exchange favours in return for compromising information on the same police unit staff investigating Sánchez’s wife Begoña Gómez and his brother David Sánchez, both accused of multiple alleged pay-for-play schemes. That referred to incidents where individuals or groups paid to gain access to certain benefits or opportunities.
The affair under investigation was known as “Manos Limpias” (“Clean Hands”) and the socialists have categorically denied any validity to the accusations, which they claimed to amounted to a smear campaign.
PSOE’s former transport minister José Luis Ábalos, was under investigation by the same police unit over an alleged pay-for-play scheme involving Covid pandemic masks procurement.
PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo declared Spain needed a “revolution of decency and liberty” and dared Sánchez to call a snap election.
Nevertheless, the PP was itself under suspicion over its handling of the recent deadly floods in Valencia as well as mortality rates in retirement homes. The partner of the PP rising star and Madrid Mayor, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, has also been accused of alleged corruption also regarding the Covid pandemic.
