Protesters want Spain's monarchy abolished
Source: AFP |
April 15, 2013, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
PROTESTERS took to the streets of Madrid yesterday to demand the abdication of Spain's scandal-hit monarchy.
Waving thousands of red, gold and purple republican flags, the crowd chanted: "Tomorrow, Spain will be republican."
"Nobody elected the king," said protester Veronica Ruiz. "We want a referendum. It would be the fair and democratic way to find out what the people want."
The protest was called to mark the anniversary of the Second Republic, proclaimed on April 14, 1931, and followed by 40 years of dictatorship under General Francisco Franco after a 1936-39 civil war. King Juan Carlos is credited with steering Spain to a parliamentary democracy under a constitutional monarchy after Franco's death in 1975.
But family scandals have dented public sentiment in the monarchy during a slump.
Support for the monarchy in Spain has fallen to a historic low of 54 percent, said a poll published in El Mundo in January.
Waving thousands of red, gold and purple republican flags, the crowd chanted: "Tomorrow, Spain will be republican."
"Nobody elected the king," said protester Veronica Ruiz. "We want a referendum. It would be the fair and democratic way to find out what the people want."
The protest was called to mark the anniversary of the Second Republic, proclaimed on April 14, 1931, and followed by 40 years of dictatorship under General Francisco Franco after a 1936-39 civil war. King Juan Carlos is credited with steering Spain to a parliamentary democracy under a constitutional monarchy after Franco's death in 1975.
But family scandals have dented public sentiment in the monarchy during a slump.
Support for the monarchy in Spain has fallen to a historic low of 54 percent, said a poll published in El Mundo in January.
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