BREAKING NEWS

Spain plans last emergency decree extension as protests break out

By REUTERS

MAY 17, 2020 00:53

Spain's government will seek to extend its coronavirus state of emergency one last time until late June, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Saturday as anti-government protests broke out around the hard-hit country.

"The path that we are taking is the only one possible," Sanchez told a news conference, saying he would ask parliament for an extension of about a month until the end of June when most of the nation should be returning to normality. Spain first decreed a state of emergency on March 14. Officials say that while the outbreak has been brought largely under control, restrictions must stay in place a bit longer as the lockdown is gradually phased out.

Protests against the government's handling of the crisis and its economic fallout sprang up around Spain on Saturday, with demonstrators gathering to bang pots and pans and call for the government to resign.

At the largest such demonstration, in Madrid's wealthy Salamanca neighborhood, several hundred people congregated despite the efforts of police to enforce social-distancing. Waving Spanish flags and crying "viva España!" some denounced the leftist government as communists seeking to ruin the country.

In one video shared widely on social media, a huge banner depicting Sanchez's face with the word "obey" emblazoned underneath was unfurled from a Madrid tower block.

Similar protests took place in Zaragoza and the southern city of Seville, until recently a Socialist Party stronghold. "It doesn't matter what the demonstrations are about. The important thing is to maintain social distancing," Sanchez said

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