Spanish opposition preparing mass ‘resistance’ against Sanchez-Puidgemont ‘coup’

Spain’s main opposition parties announced on Thursday that they were preparing massive “civil resistance” actions against the “key-to-rule” deal between the Spanish Socialist Party and Catalan separatists, which includes a controversial amnesty law for those involved in Catalonia’s 2017 separatist attempt.

Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the leader of the main right-wing opposition force in parliament, Partido Popular (PP/EPP), announced this at a press conference in Madrid.

In exchange for Catalan separatist backing to be reinstated as the new prime minister, acting Prime Minister and leader of the Socialist Party (PSOE) Pedro Sánchez has given in to ‘blackmail’ by the Catalan separatist formation JxCat, Núñez Feijóo said at the conference, El Periódico de Catalunya reported.

The “historic” agreement announced on Thursday morning between the PSOE and JxCat, led by former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, in self-exile in Brussels since the events of 2017, is an “unconditional capitulation” to the separatists because Sánchez has given in to all the demands, Núñez Feijóo said.

Harsh words also came from Madrid’s regional president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, a future rival of Núñez Feijóo for the future leadership of the PP.

“They (PSOE and JxCat) have brought us a dictatorship through the back door, and we are at the beginning of it”, she said about the recently reached deal.

PSOE spokeswoman Pilar Alegría responded, accusing the PP leader of being unable to form a governing majority despite winning the snap general elections on 23 July.

Now it is Sánchez’s turn, she added. “The right and the far-right do not respect the decision of the ballot box”, said Alegría, while accusing the PP leader of “capitulating to the far-right”.

Both Núñez Feijóo and Santiago Abascal, leader of the far-right Vox party, the third force in parliament, announced on Thursday that “protest actions” would be coordinated in the regions and municipalities where they govern in coalition to oppose the “agreement of shame”, as the PP leader called it.

“We will make a peaceful but firm resistance,” said Abascal, warning that after the deal between the “coup-maker” and “dictator” Sánchez, “a black period in the history of Spain opens”.

Shortly after the signing of the agreement in Brussels, Puigdemont, who would benefit from the extraordinary measure of grace to return to Spain without fear of being arrested, appeared at the Press Club in the Belgian capital to disclose a few details of the pact.

Sánchez in Puigdemont’s hands?

According to the separatist leader, the deal to secure Sanchez’s second term and the stability of the entire new legislature – including the national budget approval- opens an “unprecedented stage” in the country.

However, the leader of JxCat conditioned the stability of the next legislature on “progress” and “compliance” with the pact by the PSOE and the progressive platform Sumar, Sánchez’s future government partner.

“We are entering an unprecedented phase that we must know how to exploit (…) that will depend on our ability to do what we have agreed,” said Puigdemont, whom some of the ultra-conservative media in Spain, in a semantic play on the German word “coup d’état” (“Putsch”), have described, in a derogatory way, as “Putschdemont”.

The former Catalan president launched a subtle threat on Thursday and pointed out that government stability will depend on “a permanent negotiation” of the pact with the PSOE, in which “the two parties (PSOE and JxCat) are honest in outlining the enormous (ideological) distance” that separates them, given that the separatist formation belongs to the right-wing camp.

Puigdemont stated that with the agreement, “an uncertain path full of difficulties is opening up” and called for “resolving” the Catalan political crisis “in different terms” to how it has been done until now, referring to the confrontation and clashes between Madrid and Catalonia that occurred during PP governments, especially under former prime minister Mariano Rajoy (PP), who had to manage the extremely complex political crisis of 2017 in that region.

Controversial international mediator

One of the most controversial points of the agreement is Sánchez’s acceptance of an “international mediator” to verify and monitor that the pact is respected.

According to Núñez Feijóo, Sánchez’s “capitulation” to Puigdemont means accepting – implicitly – that democracy does not work in Spain and gives “the character of an international conflict” to the complex relationship between the central state and Catalonia.

Next steps: a last agreement needed

In addition to the approval of an amnesty law for Catalan separatists, the pact also includes the cancellation of €15 billion of Catalonia’s debt with Spain’s central state and the transfer of competence over the local suburban train network (Rodalies) from Madrid to the regional government, EFE reported.

As demanded by JxCat, the amnesty law also covers cases of the so-called “lawfare”, or “strategic use of laws to harm dissidents or political rivals”, as Puigdemont has described it, cases that are not directly linked to the Catalan independence movement in recent years.

Although the way is now clear for Sánchez’s investiture, the PSOE still has to close one last parliamentary deal to form a majority (176 seats out of 350) in parliament.

It has to reach a pact with the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), which also demands concessions in exchange for its support and must register the proposal for the extraordinary measure of grace in parliament.

Parliament Speaker Francina Armengol (PSOE/S&D) must set a date for the debate and investiture vote before 27 November, the final deadline, failing which new elections will be held in January 2024.

PSOE sources are confident that Sánchez’s investiture debate can occur on 15-16 November.

(Fernando Heller | EuroEFE.Euractiv.es)