About 4,000 people demonstrated against the amnesty in Madrid this Friday. The virulence of the demonstrators has subsided, but at the last minute this Friday, the throwing of firecrackers and flares started, increasing the tension. The Spanish nationalist ultras lowered their level of virulence on this eighth day of demonstrations against the amnesty for Catalan independence prosecutions. The 4,000 people who turned up for Friday's rally - a figure from the Spanish government - were not, this time, the protagonists of another out-of-control show of violence in central Madrid. Racist chants were frequent, some homophobic insults were heard, targeting interior minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska, and Pedro Sánchez and Carles Puigdemont were given the same abuse as ever. Everything as usual, but with one exception: there were no police charges and the demonstrators protested peacefully.
