Current:Home > StocksProtests turn ugly as pressure mounts on Spain’s acting government for amnesty talks with Catalans-LoTradeCoin
Protests turn ugly as pressure mounts on Spain’s acting government for amnesty talks with Catalans
View Date:2024-12-23 19:27:03
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Three people were arrested late on Monday in a protest against negotiations between Spain’s acting government and Catalan separatist parties over a possible amnesty for thousands involved in Catalonia’s independence movement.
Government authorities said that the arrests took place during a gathering by over 3,000 people in front of the national headquarters of Spain’s Socialist Party in Madrid. Two men were arrested for violent behavior against police, and one woman for disobedience, the representative of Spain’s national government in the Madrid region said.
The leader of the far-right Vox party, which holds the third-most seats in the national Parliament, was at the rally. Several protestors waved Spanish flags and pushed back against police in riot gear. There were other similar protests in other Spanish cities, but no additional arrests were reported.
Spain’s acting Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, the Socialists’ leader, blasted the protests, saying they were being led by “reactionaries.”
“(I extend) all my warmth and support for the Socialist Party members who are suffering harassment by reactionaries at their local headquarters,” Sánchez wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
“To attack the headquarters of Spain’s Socialist Party is to attack democracy.”
Sánchez is negotiating with the Catalan separatist parties to receive their backing in his bid to form a new government and keep his center-left coalition in power following an inconclusive national election in July. But the two separatist parties have demanded a sweeping amnesty that would include their leaders who fled Spain following their failed 2017 secession attempt, in exchange for their votes in Parliament, among other concessions.
That has angered many in Spain, including leading opposition parties on the right who accuse Sánchez of bending to lawbreakers.
Spain’s conservative Popular Party, the main opposition party, has called for its own protest against the amnesty negotiations for Sunday, in public squares in each provincial capital.
“I am not going to allow that my country has to ask forgiveness to those who attacked its institutions,” Popular Party leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo said.
There had been other protests in recent weeks, but they had remained peaceful.
Sánchez has until Nov. 27 to form a new government or the Parliament will be automatically dissolved and new elections called for January.
Despite losing steam in recent years, Catalonia’s separatist movement retains strong support in the wealthy northeast region including control of the regional government.
veryGood! (8)
Related
- Pitchfork Music Festival to find new home after ending 19-year run in Chicago
- How the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders' Kelli Finglass Changed the Conversation on Body Image
- This San Francisco home is priced at a low $488K, but there's a catch
- Hawaii Five-0 actor Taylor Wily dead at 56
- Off the Grid: Sally breaks down USA TODAY's daily crossword puzzle, Mixed Use
- New Mexico heavy rain and flash flooding prompt mandatory evacuations in Las Vegas
- Taylor Swift swallows bug, asks crowd to finish singing 'All Too Well': Watch
- Taylor Swift posts selfie with Prince William, kids and goes IG official with Travis Kelce
- Over 1.4 million Honda, Acura vehicles subject of US probe over potential engine failure
- Score 70% Off Spanx, $4 Old Navy Deals, 45% Off Ulta, 70% Off West Elm & More of Today's Best Deals
Ranking
- Special counsel Smith asks court to pause appeal seeking to revive Trump’s classified documents case
- Hollister's Annual Summer Sale is Here: Get $10 Shorts, $20 Jeans & More Deals Up to 64% Off
- Israel's Netanyahu appears at odds with White House and Israel's military over war with Hamas in Gaza
- Gunmen kill 15 police officers and several civilians in Russia’s southern Dagestan region
- Bill on school bathroom use by transgender students clears Ohio Legislature, heads to governor
- U.S. Olympic track trials results: Sha'Carri Richardson wins women's 100 final to reach Paris
- Elon Musk’s Ex-Wife Talulah Riley Marries Love Actually’s Thomas Brodie-Sangster
- Mexican-born NASCAR driver Daniel Suárez becomes US citizen: 'Did it my way'
Recommendation
-
Black and Latino families displaced from Palm Springs neighborhood reach $27M tentative settlement
-
US regulators chide four big-bank 'living wills,' FDIC escalates Citi concerns
-
Body camera video captures frantic moments, intense gunfire after fatal shooting of Minneapolis cop
-
Six protesters run onto 18th green and spray powder, delaying finish of Travelers Championship
-
'I know how to do math': New Red Lobster CEO says endless shrimp deal is not coming back
-
Noah Lyles wins opening round of men's 100m at US Olympic track and field trials
-
2024 College World Series highlights: Tennessee beats Texas A&M, forces Game 3
-
South Korea summons Russia's ambassador over Moscow's new pact with North as inter-Korean tensions keep rising