After the tension that has been experienced in the streets of Madrid in recent days, Congress will wake up today very protected to host the second investiture debate of the legislature, which will last until tomorrow.
Unlike what happened with the popular Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the socialist Pedro Sánchez will predictably be elected president by an absolute majority and in the first vote, but he will do so after two days of a debate that seems harsh in the chamber, given the reaction of PP and Vox to the agreements sealed by the PSOE with Junts and ERC, which include the amnesty for those prosecuted by the process in the last ten years.
Given the uncertainty that this excited atmosphere could infect the mood on the street, given the daily protests that have been taking place in front of the socialist headquarters of Ferraz, the National Police will deploy 1,600 agents to protect the Cortes.
The majority of these police officers belong to the police intervention units (UIP), known as riot police, and their mission will be to protect the legislative headquarters from possible attempts to hinder the development of the parliamentary session. To do this, traffic will be cut off on the Carrera de San Jerónimo and there will be a police checkpoint at all foot access to the surrounding streets.
The device is similar to those of high-risk soccer matches, such as the one played on the 7th of this month between Atlético de Madrid and Celtic Glasgow, where 1,300 troops participated, or the 1,700 who contributed to the security of the match the next day between Real Madrid and Sporting de Braga.
At the investiture of Mariano Rajoy, of the PP, in October 2016, the number of security forces was 1,000 agents. Other recent events that have involved extensive police deployment, greater than that of tomorrow and Thursday, were the final of the Copa Libertadores soccer match between the Argentine teams Boca Juniors and River Plate in Madrid.
This device was closed yesterday, Tuesday, 24 hours before the start of the plenary session and after the president of Congress, Francina Armengol, announced the date of the investiture on Monday, coinciding with the registration of the amnesty law proposal by the PSOE. . Already then, pedestrian access controls and restrictions began at Cedaceros Street.
In addition, fences were placed in the surrounding area so that today and tomorrow it would be completely surrounded. However, in recent days isolated protests have been held in the Plaza de las Cortes, with some attempts at camping aborted by the police forces.
The acting Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, met yesterday with agents from the deployed units. “You have the support and gratitude of the entire society,” he told them, as reported by the department on its official account on the social network X.
Interior sources add that the device will be “similar” to other investitures, with the exception that daily protests have now been taking place for more than ten days in another part of Madrid, on Ferraz Street, where the PSOE headquarters is located. and in which some disturbances have occurred due to the confrontation between far-right ultras and UIP agents.
