Sánchez close to moment of truth in Catalan deal debacle

As Spain’s King Felipe VI began his second round of contacts with the country’s main political parties on Monday, acting Prime Minister and Socialist candidate Pedro Sánchez is nearing his own “moment of truth” as he must soon clarify how far he is willing to go to return to government.

Following the failure of the centre-right opposition leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of the Partido Popular (PPE/EPP), the monarch is required by the country’s Magna Carta to hold a new round of contacts with all political parties represented in parliament.

Sánchez (PSOE/S&D) had already expressed to the Spanish head of State his willingness to stand for an investiture vote and has even publicly expressed his confidence that there will be a new progressive government made up of PSOE and the left-wing platform Sumar, led by the acting Labour Minister, Yolanda Díaz.

However, a big hurdle for reaching a consensus remains the list of demands submitted by the two main Catalan separatist parties – both ideologically antipodal – the centre-right Junts Per Catalunya (JxCat, Together for Catalonia) and the left-wing Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC, Republican Left of Catalonia).

In the snap general election held on 23 July, Catalonia was won by the local branch of the PSOE, the PSC, led by Salvador Illa, Spain’s former health minister during the pandemic.

Time for explanations

There were technical ties between JxCat and ERC (both with seven MPs), which has aggravated their rivalry, making current negotiations with PSOE and Sumar more difficult.

However, ERC, which controls Catalonia’s regional government, fears JxCat will surpass them, which could lead to new elections in the prosperous Spanish region, perhaps as early as 2024, Spanish media speculate.

But as Spain heads into October, a crucial month in determining whether Sánchez achieves his goal, many doubts have arisen among voters, analysts and the media about what he can or will offer in exchange for another term in Moncloa Palace, the seat of the Spanish executive.

“The time has come for the pedagogy that is inextricably linked to the negotiation with the pro-independence parties for an (…) investiture of Pedro Sánchez. The pressure on the acting prime minister and the socialist ministers to detail the agenda and the contents of the negotiations with ERC and JxCat will be strong and sustained from this week onwards”, reads an oped published Monday in El País.

An ‘aggression’ against the Spanish people

Although the government insists that it can only negotiate within the framework of the Constitution, which would not allow for a referendum on self-determination for Catalonia, doubts remain as to whether Sánchez would be willing to allow an amnesty law – or a similar legal formula – for those involved in the October 2017 secession attempt.

However, both Feijóo and Santiago Abascal, leader of the third-largest force in parliament, the far-right VOX party, have already warned that their militants will organise massive and repeated street protests if the government goes ahead with an amnesty law, and the PP has pledged to file a complaint with Spain’s Supreme Court.

But Abascal was tougher.

“It is an aggression against which the Spanish people have the duty and right to defend themselves, and they will do so. Then don’t come (Sánchez and Díaz) whining to us”, stressed Abascal, a close friend of Orban, Meloni and Le Pen.

(Fernando Heller | EuroEFE.Euractiv.es)