King Juan Carlos abdicates: Demonstrations calling for a third republic reach London and Berlin
Tuesday, June 3, 2014 @ 9:58 AM
HUNDREDS of thousands of Spanish people took to the streets yesterday (Monday) evening to call for a referendum on whether the country should become a republic following the shock news of King Juan Carlos I's abdication.
At least 10,000 demonstrators gathered in Madrid's Puerta del Sol square and another 5,000 in Barcelona's Plaza de Catalunya, carrying the tricolour – red, yellow and purple – republican flag.
Those in Barcelona and other towns and cities in Catalunya also used the situation to call for a referendum on the north-eastern region's independence.
They carried banners reading, España, mañana, será republicana ('Spain, tomorrow, will be Republican'); Los Borbones, a las elecciones ('The Bourbons should hold elections'); 'Royal transition without a King', referring to the transition to democracy upon dictator General Franco's death in 1975 which led to the crowning of HRH Juan Carlos I, son of the Count of Barcelona; 'long live the fight of the working class', and 'Things happen in threes, another republic, please', since if their wishes were to be granted, it would be Spain's third republic in its history.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com