This Saturday, June 13, the III Republican March will be held in Madrid, under the slogan "Republic for peace". The mobilization will start in Puerta del Sol and will make a stop in front of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where a "no to war" will be demanded.
The organizing platforms have explained that Puerta del Sol has been chosen as the starting point for being an "iconic place of Spanish republicanism and of the 15M". After passing by Foreign Affairs, where they will insist on "no to war" and demand from Israel "the end of the genocide against Palestine", the march will continue along Atocha street until it concludes in Reina Sofía square.
As a distinctive element of this edition, the head of the demonstration will be formed by a bicycle ride organized by the Ciclorrefugio platform, which has promoted "a promising call for republicans on bicycles, who will be paving the way".
"A republic for peace" as the central slogan
The slogan chosen this year is "a republic for peace", since, as the organizers have pointed out, "monarchy is war". This idea has been supported by several deputies from Podemos and Sumar, who last Thursday publicly expressed their support for the march at the Puerta de los Leones of Congress.
In addition to "no to war", the manifesto of the call demands Spain's "immediate exit" from NATO and argues that "a 21st-century Republic must be a guarantor of coexistence, cooperation, and friendship among peoples".
Representatives of the State Republican March and parliamentarians from Sumar and Podemos stressed that the republican issue is "highly relevant" in an international scenario marked by "imperialist wars that devastate the working class".
Javier Sánchez Serna, spokesperson for Podemos in Congress, took advantage of the event to "recall that the Spanish Constitution of the Second Republic already renounced war as an instrument of international policy".
In the same vein, Francisco Sierra, a deputy from Izquierda Unida integrated into the parliamentary group of Sumar, argued that "the Republic is peace" and that "a democratic rupture and a process of opening up to citizens" is necessary.
For his part, Gerardo Pisarello, co-spokesperson for the Comuns and member of the Congress Bureau, emphasized the importance of a secular republic to guarantee peace and appealed to the mobilization of the "republican people".
"We need to take to the streets to show that we have to go much further than what is being achieved in the institutions and that, as I say, can only be the product of a citizen conquest. This was the case in the First Republic, this was the case in the Second Republic and this will be the case in the Third Republic that we all aspire to build," said Pisarello.
Buses from different territories
In the call note, it is estimated that, for this third edition, "a dozen buses will arrive in Madrid, coming from Andalusia, Valencian Country, Asturias, La Rioja or Basque Country".
Elena Ollero, spokesperson for the Republican March, stated this Thursday that people will come to the capital "from all national territories" to "cry out for a Republic, to reclaim a Republic", because they consider that "enough of having an absolutely archaic institution, where blood privileges prevail and citizens are considered subjects instead of citizens with rights".