Spain Socialists file complaint over 'lynching' of PM dummy

The incident followed weeks of tension over Sanchez's return to power after he secured the backing of Catalan separatists in exchange for a controversial amnesty law linked to their failed 2017 independence bid.

The amnesty bill has brought thousands of right-wing and far-right protesters onto the streets in recent months, with rallies outside the Socialist party's Madrid headquarters often degenerating into scuffles with police.

At one protest on New Year's Eve, a suited dummy representing the prime minister was strung up from a traffic light and beaten, punched and kicked by demonstrators as they chanted anti-Sanchez slogans.

In a complaint filed with prosecutors, a copy of which was seen by AFP, the Socialist party called for investigators to identify "those responsible for making the dummy representing the prime minister and those who led the lynching efforts".

Last month, the party filed a complaint against far-right Vox party leader Santiago Abascal over comments suggesting Sanchez would meet a dictator's end and be strung up "by his feet".

The complaint accused him of inciting "hatred" and "violence" towards Sanchez and his party.

In the latest complaint, the party said the incident outside its headquarters on New Year's Eve went "one step further" with historical language such as "Happy 1936".

The reference to 1936 was in connection with the start of Spain's civil war when a military putsch against the Socialist-led Republican government sparked a three-year conflict and nearly four decades of dictatorship under Francisco Franco until 1975.