Biggest protest in Spain draws 170,000

MADRID — About 170,000 people marched through Madrid on Saturday in the largest protest yet against an amnesty law which Spain’s Socialists agreed over Catalonia’s 2017 separatist bid in order to form a government.

The demonstration, the latest in a series of protests in cities across the country against the amnesty, took place two days after Spain’s Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez won a four-year term with the backing of Catalan and Basque nationalist parties in return for agreeing to the law.

Protesters, many waving Spanish flags and holding signs that read “Sanchez traitor” and “Don’t sell Spain,” demonstrated against the law which four judicial associations, opposition political parties and business leaders said threatens the rule of law and the separation of powers.

Authorities put the number of demonstrators at 170,000.