On Friday night, there was a “spontaneous” demonstration outside Socialist Party HQ in Madrid, against Sánchez and the amnesty deal with Puigdemont, a couple of thousand people, perhaps, and riot police donned their helmets and batons on the line in front of the building. Protestors booed and whistled former PM Zapatero as he came out. Europa Press reported one man was arrested for refusing to identify himself to police.
On social media, supporters insisted it was just “ordinary voters”, “normal Spaniards”, angry at the new deal with Catalan separatists, using Twitter and WhatsApp and Telegram to express their disgust at the Prime Minister. A quick look at which accounts were congratulating themselves the day afterwards, though, and indeed announcing a new protest for Monday evening, led back to a spider’s web of influencer or semi-anonymous accounts related to Spain’s alt-right party, Vox.
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