Comment: political tension in Spain skyrockets after police charge anti-amnesty protestors

• The right takes to Spanish streets, with two different strategies

• Vox and the "spontaneous" protests against Sánchez's amnesty deal

• A sudden constitutional crisis in Spain

Well, that escalated quickly, as they say. National political tension in Spain rocketed up by a significant level last night. Thousands of people took peacefully but vociferously to the streets in the anti-amnesty protests across the country, led by the alt-right and Vox, outside Socialist Party headquarters in at least Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Jaén, Zaragoza, Murcia, Cádiz, Málaga, Valencia, Badajoz, Salmanca, León, Oviedo and Granada. Vox leader Abascal tweeted “we’re going to Ferraz” (or, alternatively, “let’s go to Ferraz”), the national Socialist Party HQ in Madrid, just before 8 p.m. but just after that, two relevant things happened.

First, around 9 p.m., Spain’s Judicial Council issued an 8-page institutional declaration condemning Sánchez’s amnesty deal with Puigdemont, in a 9-5 vote, with conservatives in the majority. The interim Prime Minister, it read, was doing an amnesty deal with a fugitive from justice (Puigdemont) who would benefit personally from the deal. There was no need to wait for the actual law to go through parliament to understand its broad outlines and implications. The amnesty deal being done by the PM can only mean “an unadmissable invasion of our Constitution” and the role of the courts in a democracy. The council said it felt “intense concern and desolation” regarding the proposed law, which confounded “the interest of Spain with the interest of the Prime Minister”. The five dissenting members said the statement ran “the grave risk” of confusing citizens on a law that did not yet exist, and that it was up to parliament to pass the laws that it saw fit.