Sánchez nominated to form government, vows ‘harmony’ with Catalonia

Spain’s King Felipe VI nominated acting Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez – who has pledged to continue working for ‘harmony’ in Catalonia, a thorny political issue he must resolve if he is to return to power – as a candidate for prime minister on Tuesday.

Sánchez’s nomination comes after Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the leader of the conservative People’s Party (PP/EPP), which narrowly won the most votes in July’s snap general election, failed to garner enough support in parliament to form a stable government.

Sánchez (PSOE/S&D), the current interim prime minister, will now begin the formal process of negotiating with potential junior coalition partners, including his potential coalition ally, the progressive Sumar platform, led by acting Labour Minister Yolanda Díaz.

The prime minister said he would open talks with Díaz on Wednesday.

“I would like it (the investiture debate) to happen as soon as possible. We are going to work hard, I trust. Negotiations are not going to be easy. They are going to be complex”, Sánchez admitted at a press conference held Tuesday at the Moncloa Palace in Madrid, the seat of the Spanish Executive.

To form a government, the leader of PSOE, which came second in July’s poll, will need the support of regional and separatist parties, some of whom want independence from Madrid, including the hardline centre-right Catalan separatist group Junts per Catalunya (JxCat), and the left-wing Catalan separatist Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC).

Junts leader Carles Puigdemont, who fled the Spanish justice system in 2017 after a secession attempt that year and has since lived in Waterloo, near Brussels, has said he will only consider supporting Sánchez if charges against him and other leaders of the Catalan independence movement are dropped.

However, as Finance Minister María Jesús Montero assured on Tuesday, the PSOE does not only want an agreement for the investiture. Its aim is to achieve permanent parliamentary support in order to, among other objectives, approve Spain’s budget for 2024.

Otherwise, the current one would have to be extended.

In the event that Sánchez manages to return to power, his job will be very difficult as Feijóo’s PP has a majority in the Senate and could easily block the government’s daily legislative work.

‘Generosity’ with Catalonia

The potential amnesty for the Catalan leaders who held an unsanctioned independence referendum in 2017 has generated widespread controversy in Spain.

Sánchez on Tuesday called for “generosity”, “commitment”, “leadership” and “policy” to solve the Catalonia issue and break the political deadlock in the country while dismissing the possibility of a self-determination referendum in that prosperous Spanish region.

The interim prime minister also defended the “difficult” decision he took in June 2021 when he pardoned nine separatist leaders who were convicted for declaring Catalonia’s independence in 2017, insisting that “it was right” and was taken for the sake of the country’s best interests.

Sánchez added he was confident in securing a coalition agreement to “consolidate and expand” the progress of the previous legislature and to continue working towards “harmony” in Catalonia together with Sumar, a platform that has almost absorbed Unidas Podemos (United We Can).

The Socialist candidate also urged the nation to overcome “past differences” and said he believes a majority in Spain wants a progressive government.

“I appeal to the responsibility of all political forces to translate that social majority into a government of progress and coexistence,” he stated.

In addition to the votes of Sumar, Sánchez needs the backing of Basque nationalist parties PNV and EH Bildu, JxCat, ERC, and BNG, a regional party from Galicia (northeast).

‘Dark negotiations’ ahead, PP warns

Meanwhile, Feijóo urged Sánchez on Tuesday to clarify who are his potential allies, because it is a “relevant fact” that “his candidacy has less parliamentary backing than it had a month ago”, he said.

Feijóo stressed that while his candidacy counted on 172 votes, that of the acting Prime Minister does not reach 130, a “numerical incoherence”, he warned.

To secure a second term as prime minister, Sánchez needs 176 votes out of 350 to form a stable government.

“Dark negotiations await us, a dramatisation of politics and lies await us, and I fear that there will be many of them”, he warned.

(Fernando Heller | EuroEFE.Euractiv.es)