All the concentrated heat of the San Miguel summer was falling heavily on Madrid when Alberto Núñez Feijóo took the stage in Plaza Felipe II to the rhythm of Bruce Springsteen to take a mass bath 48 hours after his failed investiture. The Rising was playing at full volume: “Come on, let's get up”. With the emotional kick of seeing before him an overflowing flood of supporters, two former presidents and 11 government barons, the president of the PP has intoned his particular “enough is enough!” against the possible erasure of the crimes of the process: “Freedom, equality and dignity” against the “unspeakable cacicada” of the amnesty.

All expectations of the PP for its act of self-affirmation as guarantor of equality have been exceeded. 40,000 people, according to the Government Delegation, and more than 60,000, according to the PP, have packed the capital's Plaza de Felipe II (where 10,000 attendees were expected, in principle) and, above all, its adjacent streets, where You couldn't hear the speeches, but rather a looped chant: “Puigdemont to prison.”

At the rally, Feijóo gave a harangue speech against the hypothetical investiture pact of Pedro Sánchez with Junts per Catalunya in exchange for giving in to their demands for maximum. “In a Spain of free and equal citizens, the vote of one cannot be given more value compared to the vote of another.”. Law and Justice must be equal for everyone, starting with politicians, because if politicians are not equal before the law it is an unspeakable cacicada in a Legal State,” Feijóo stressed in the main passage of his speech.. “There is no room for first-class and second-class citizens,” he added.

“Forecasts overwhelmed”: the PP estimates that there were “more than 60,000” attendees at the event against the amnesty EL MUNDO

After two months of digesting his bitter victory in the general elections, Feijóo today received a real electroshock of self-esteem with the massive support of his people to “defend sovereignty”. “Even if it costs me the Presidency of the Government, I will defend that Spain is a nation of free and equal citizens.”

“What they do has only one name, indignity. And there is only one person responsible, the one who is in La Moncloa after having lost the elections,” Feijóo proclaimed, after invoking the Constitution of 1812: “More than two centuries later, and after 45 years of democracy, we Spaniards see each other forced to defend the same thing as in 1812: our sovereignty, our freedoms and our right to the same opportunities”.

For the candidate for the investiture, “it is false, flatly false, that the independence movement has to be decisive in governability. “It's just another socialist fallacy.”. “What no Spaniards voted for, at least 94%, was a change in the constitutional regime,” he stressed.. “94% of us voted to maintain the Constitution,” he insisted, before once again describing as “aggravated and repeated fraud” the fact that Sánchez did not include the amnesty in his program and has now opened the door.

“It is not socialism when they claim privileges for an elite. That is elitism, never progressivism.. They call amnesty normalization and they call losing winning. What I'm saying is don't call us Spaniards stupid, because we're not, we don't swallow that,” exclaimed Feijóo.

After criticizing “Sánchez's irresponsibility” for demonstrating “an absolute lack of moral integrity and political integrity”, Feijoo wanted to thank Vox, UPN and the Canarian Coalition for their votes for the investiture and for “uniting to defend unity and equality of the Spaniards”. “This is not about blocks or territories. It's not even about legality, it's about principles, whether you have them or not.. Of rights and equality. Nobody can be more than anyone. I will defend the equality of Spaniards even if it costs me the presidency of the Government,” he reiterated.

Finally, Feijóo has contrasted his “principles” with those of Sánchez: “The PP never sells its principles for a mayor's office, for a deputation, for an autonomous community or for the Government of Spain”. “We have not done it and we never will,” he concluded.

Aznar and Rajoy: “It is an amendment to the entire Constitution”

The opening acts for Feijóo included the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida; the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso; and the former presidents José María Aznar and Mariano Rajoy.

Aznar has assured that “the Constitution is not a bargaining chip to satisfy coup plotters” and that “no one is going to misappropriate the freedom and equality of all.”. Furthermore, he added that the amnesty would be “an unprecedented attack, because it not only comes from the enemies of the Constitution, but also from a party that has the obligation to defend it and does not do so”, in reference to the PSOE.. “We are never going to accept it!” he exclaimed.

Rajoy, who was president in 2017, when the sedition condemned by the Supreme Court in Catalonia occurred, has pointed out that the amnesty is “an amendment to the entirety of our Constitution and our democracy” and is “morally unacceptable.”

“This is what the leaders of the PSOE said a couple of months ago. And why don't they say it now? The only difference is Puigdemont's votes that Sánchez needs to be sworn in,” he responded to himself.

Then, as in many other moments of the event, the chants of “Puigdemont to prison!” increased.

As host, the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, opened fire, greeting all his superiors. From Ayuso to Feijóo passing through Aznar: “Between Puigdemont and Sánchez, always Spain.” The contained enthusiasm that Almeida provoked overflowed at 12:10 when Isabel Díaz Ayuso was introduced. Impressive: “Ayuso, Ayuso, Ayuso!” “The pull that this woman has is formidable,” diagnosed one protester. “In Madrid we are experts in Sánchez's affronts,” she said. Each intervention by the president of the Community was an outcry. “If he allows himself to be humiliated, so be it. We have no way.” And “no way” was the whip of his speech, the phrase, the slogan that the countless and kilometer-long parish ended up chanting at the end of each stanza.. As a response. Pop Concert Tactics. Like the star he is.

And after the mass bath, the demonstration of who is the guardian of the charisma, he said goodbye with a “Long live Spain!” before introducing José María Aznar: “The Constitution is not a bargaining chip”. Sacred principles as immovable pillars of Spain that had to be defended transversally among all parties became this morning the exclusive heritage of the PP. The speeches continued their course and channel. Nobody like Ayuso shook up the street. During Rajoy's monotonous intervention, new shouts broke out: “Puigdemont, to prison! Puigdemont, to prison!”. At 12:38, MR (almost) finished, or that was the wish: “The amnesty is an amendment to the entirety of our Constitution and our democracy”. And he put on the medal for that (mild) application of article 155 against the 1-O coup before telling Núñez Feijóo: “You are not alone.”

Feijóo's stellar presentation – “the winner of the 23-J elections” in the speaker's voice – sounded, however, like a campaign closing rally: “President! President! President!” Enthusiasm returned after Rajoy's crack. A greater depth, a greater weight, a nod to the 14 autonomies won, to their barons. And a swipe at the PSOE, taking advantage of the presence of Aznar and Rajoy, between eyebrows: “A party that does not respect its elders has no present and no future”. And he highlighted the volume of attendance at a demonstration that they did not want: 40,000 attendees [60,000, according to PP sources]. “They have invented the noise of the progressive majority. They are neither the majority nor are they progressive,” said the candidate appointed by the King to form the Government.. It was like the rehearsal of the investiture speech/debate of the imminent Tuesday in this investiture, won, on the street.

A stream of people went up Goya Street from Colón, an hour before the start, with unmistakable banners: “Feijo, fijo!”. The creator of the slogan, let's agree, did not give up in the attempt. Flags of Spain, PP pennants, flags of Extremadura, Galicia, La Rioja, Andalusia…. A few meters ahead of the Trébol cafeteria, a street vendor hawked his product: “The Spanish flag costs one euro!” “Sánchez sells it cheaper,” one of his own replied.. Or much more expensive, depending on the price of the demolition: amnesty.

During the sound checks, with the backdrop of “For the equality of the Spanish”, the side screens began to broadcast images of Pedro Sánchez changing his mind about the amnesty (and everything else you throw at it) and convulsed the parish who crowded at the front of the Plaza de Felipe II, in front of the stage, like the first groupies. A sea of flags stirred a wave of boos. It was only the beginning.

The buses that docked like barges on Narváez Street continued vomiting troops that fed the demonstration, increasingly condensed between the buildings on the old road of the old bullring in Madrid, where the WiZink stands today.. “The square is already full,” announced the voice testing the sound at 11:14. There would still be room for more faithful until 12, time for the gunshot.. But the chosen site did not allow expansion with its blocks of houses like a cattle herd.. The buses chartered by the autonomous baronies of the Popular Party seemed to have exceeded all the organization's expectations.

On Fernán González Street it was difficult to join the flood that was already bogged down in the heart of Goya.. At its Metro station the convoys no longer stopped, for safety reasons, due to crowding.

Dalí's dolmen threatened like a meteorite that could fall on the stage at any moment and the high average age, at this time, confirmed that youth get stuck in the sheets on Sundays.. And he would join with the hangover pace of Saturday night, staying in the queue of the demonstration that overflowed through Conde de Peñalver and Alcalá.

The screens offered, with depth perspective, an astonishing picture of the massive attendance, as if you were going down to Columbus.. Archive images of Núñez Feijoó opening for himself warmed up the masses with messages of exaltation: “They want us to shut up!”. The cry of encouragement would find an amplified echo throughout the morning in this investiture of the street.