Thousands of people protest in Madrid against the government of Pedro Sánchez | Spain

Tens of thousands of people gathered in central Madrid to protest the socialist government of the Spanish government, Pedro SánchezAnd demand a first general election, while his party, his administration and his family continue to be beset by a succession of allegations of corruption.

Sunday’s protest, called by the Party of the Conservative People (PP) of the opposition under the slogan “Mafia or Democracy”, attracted between 45,000 and 50,000 people, according to the delegation of the central government in the region. The organizers put attendance at 100,000.

The Government of Sánchez and its inner circle faced a series of allegations of corruption in the past year. Pressure on his party of Spanish Socialist Workers (PSOE) has increased in recent days after a former party member has been accused of having tried to carry out a smear campaign against the Guardia police unit investigating the Prime Minister’s wife, Begoña Gómez, his brother, David Sánchez, and the former Minister of Transport José Luis ábalos.

Leire Díaz, who resigned from the PSOE after the disclosure of the recordings in which she seemed to offer a judicial leniency in exchange for compromising information on the higher members of the unity, denied having worked on behalf of the Prime Minister or the Party, affirming that she was looking for a book on corruption.

While the demonstrators gathered in the midday heat of the Plaza de España, carrying signs carrying messages such as “Sánchez Treatment” and “government resign”, the head of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, renewed his call for early election.

“Spain needs a revolution in decency and freedom-and we will direct this street and ballot revolution,” he told the crowd. “M. Sánchez, stop hiding, stop lying and stops running. Spain only knows who you are and what you have done. Yield to democracy. Call an election: we want one now because no one has voted for this, not even your supporters. »»

The Prime Minister accused his political and media opponents of carrying out a “Halting and intimidation operation” Against him and his wife, arguing that the false allegations which are launched to him are designed to provoke his “personal and political collapse”.

Gómez is the subject of an investigation for an alleged corruption and influencing hawking after a complaint from the Manos Limpias pressure group (Clean Hands), a self -proclaimed union with far -right ties which has a long story of use of the courts to pursue political objectives. Manos Limpias A accused Gómez of using his influence As the Prime Minister’s wife to obtain sponsors for a university supervisor she organized. Sánchez described the case against his wife as well as without foundation and “a thin adjustment motivated by the far -right groups behind the complaint”.

Meanwhile, David Sánchez faces a trial for allegations of influential haggling and other offenses in a case that also started with accusations of Limpias Manos and other groups. He denies the accusations.

The administration of Sánchez has also faced questions since it appeared in February of last year that an assistant of Ábalos, formerly a close ally and a confidant of the Prime Minister, had been arrested for suspicion to take payments to facilitate contracts for facial masks during the coronavirus pandemic.

Meanwhile, the PP, which was Government ousted Seven years ago after a series of corruption scandals, was himself exposed to several fronts, notably above his Manipulation of fatal floods Last year in Valence, one of the regions it governs.

Isabel Díaz Ayuso, Populist PP president in the Madrid region – and one of the Prime Minister’s most vocal criticism – is confronted with continuous issues on her government’s coastal protocols after more than 7,200 people died in the region’s care houses during the early stages of the Pandemic. She was also forced to defend her Relationship with his partnerAlberto González Amador, after the judges began to investigate his commercial transactions.

González Amador is the subject of an investigation for a variety of alleged offenses and has been accused of two tax fraud chiefs and a counterfeit documents related to the fees he charged with a company that imported masks opposite during the pandemic. Ayuso said that his partner had been targeted by “all state powers” only because of her relationship with her, while a member of his administration recently declared that “the presumption of innocence should be respected”.

The government has tried to play the demonstrations, rejecting them as a sign of the despair of the PP.

The Minister of Transport of Spain, óscar Puente, published aerial photos showing the far from full of full, while the Minister of Digital Transformation, óscar López, said that the demonstration had been called to distract the attention of the underperforming leadership of Feijóo and the problems of Ayuso.

“They are really nervous,” wrote López on X. “Because they filled the Plaza de España with insults but not with people … While they were frighting mud, we move forward.”