JAKARTA - Tens of thousands of people took to the streets during anti-government protests in Madrid on Saturday to urge Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to resign.
Authorities said about 31,000 people rallied that day, while protest organizers estimated the number of participants was much higher, which was 500 thousand people.
Launching Antara, Sunday, Santiago Abascal from the far-right Vox party became the only national political leader to participate in the protests, although there were also several other politicians from the Popular Party and Ciudadanos who participated.
Abascal said he was encouraged to join the protests as the Spanish government is currently worst in history.
He also called for massive and continuous mobilization until Pedro Sanchez dropped out of government.
During the protest, protesters shouted for PM Sanchez to step down and be imprisoned.
In an open statement, protest organizers said Spain's democracy was in danger.
They warned that the Spanish government was making "hidden agreements" with totalitarian, nationalist, separatist and terrorist populist figures to secretly erode Spanish democracy.
They also protested the government's decision against the separatist group Catalonia, such as pardoning separatist leaders and removing sedition crimes, as well as transferring members of the Basque separatist group, essentially to prisons closer to the Basque region.
Spain is currently controlled by a minority coalition government, seeking support from regional political groups in the Catalonia region and the Basque Country autonomous region to pass legislation.
Meanwhile, while speaking at a general meeting of the Socialist Party in Valladolid, Sanchez compared the protests in Madrid with protests in Barcelona on Thursday by Catalonia separatists and called the two protest groups "cangeneous and exclusive".
Among the protests at Barcelona and the protests in Madrid, you will find most of the Spaniards, who want a united, respectful, and diverse country, he said.
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