Spain's Socialist party filed suit Wednesday against the leader of the far-right Vox party over comments suggesting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez would meet a dictator's end and be strung up "by his feet".
In its legal complaint, a copy of which was seen by AFP, Sanchez's party accused Vox leader Santiago Abascal of "inciting hatred and even violence" for remarks in a weekend interview with Argentina's Clarin newspaper.
In the article, Abascal denounced Sanchez as having "no scruples and no principles" and said there would come a time when "the Spanish people would want to string him up by the feet".
His remarks prompted a furious backlash from Sanchez and his ministers.
The lawsuit accuses Abascal of "incitement to hatred" saying his words had "a clear allusion to the 1945 execution of Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini," who after being shot, was "insulted and physically abused by an angry mob who then hung him upside down" by the feet.
"Not only does (this expression) identify the democratically-elected prime minister with a dictator, but also uses the Benito Mussolini simile to justify the fact that a time will come when people will want to use violence against him," it said.
Abascal's words constituted "incitement to hatred" towards Sanchez and his Socialist party and could also be considered as "slander or libel", it said.
In the interview, Abascal attacked Sanchez for pushing through an amnesty law for Catalan separatists in return for their supporting his return to power last month.
The bill has been furiously opposed by Vox and the right-wing opposition because it will pardon exiled Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont who led a failed independence bid in 2017 that sparked Spain's worst political crisis in decades.
Puigdemont is seen by many on the right as public enemy number one, with the bill bringing thousands of protesters onto the streets in recent weeks who have jeered Sanchez as a "dictator" in rallies that have at times turned violent.
Sanchez on Monday lashed out at Abascal, saying his remarks were "an attempt to turn.. Spain into a place where hate speech and confrontation reigns".