MADRID, May 23 (Reuters) – A small group of protesters tried to break through barriers around the residence of Spain’s Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Saturday during a mass rally calling for him to resign after a series of corruption scandals.
Police detained a group of masked people on the main road approaching Madrid’s Moncloa Palace, where Sanchez lives with his family, images on Spanish television showed.
Tens of thousands of demonstrators carried banners marked with “Resignation of the socialist mafia” and other slogans, alongside scores of Spanish gold and red flags in the March for Dignity, organised by the Spanish Civil Society association.
Leaders from the opposition People’s Party and the far-right Vox party also took part in the largely peaceful march.
A Spanish court announced on Tuesday that former Spanish Socialist prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero was being investigated for allegedly leading an influence-peddling and money-laundering network, in another blow to the leftist government beset by corruption scandals.
Zapatero, a key ally of the current prime minister, denied any wrongdoing on Tuesday.
Organizers said 80,000 people had taken part in the protest, though the Spanish government representative in Madrid put the number at about 40,000.
(Reporting by Graham Keeley, Michael Gore)
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