Spain´s acting Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, announced Tuesday (25 July) that he will not hurry inter-party negotiations to form a progressive government, but behind the scenes, he is reportedly considering conceding to radical Catalan pro-independence formations to pave his way to power.
Sánchez, the leader of PSOE (S&D), who against all odds came second in last Sunday’s elections behind centre-right Partido Popular (PP/EPP), was clear he will not negotiate under pressure and will wait until the second half of August to start formal negotiations. This will come after parliament and the Senate is elected, possibly on 17 August, EURACTIV´s partner EFE reported.
The formation of the new parliament, in which the far-right Vox (ECR) is the third force and the progressive platform Sumar fourth, will be the first milestone of the new legislature. The critical meeting will be with King Felipe VI, the Spanish head of State, before September, where a leader with sufficient support must be presented.
While Núñez Feijóo does not have that backing, Sánchez also has a long road ahead of him. The Spanish political map left by last Sunday’s elections is as complex as a multi-coloured Rubik’s cube, with different parties involved in unusual combinations needed to reach an agreement.
Núñez Feijóo, a lot of ‘faith’ but no possibilities
Of the 176 seats out of 350 needed for an absolute majority, the PP only has 136 plus 33 from Vox and one from the regional conservative party Unión del Pueblo Navarro (UPN)- a total of 170.
On Monday night, the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) and the regionalist formation Coalición Canaria refused to support the PP because of its alliances with Vox.
Despite the difficulties, Núñez Feijóo announced Tuesday that he is not giving up and wants to continue negotiating with other forces, including the PSOE, even though, from a strictly arithmetical point of view, he knows that his chances to become prime minister are close to zero.
“To say that you don’t have support because you have spoken to some group seems to me to be a hasty conclusion”, he stressed in Santiago de Compostela, Galicia (Northeast), on the day of the celebration of the apostle St. James, with a tone of resignation and frustration.
A ‘Gran coalición española’?
With a little tradition of pacts, a “Grand Coalition” such as those formed in Germany between the Social Democrats (SPD) and the centre-right (CDU/CSU), and other parties, as some European political forces have called for, does not seem possible in Spain.
The first such experiment was Sánchez’s government with the now almost defunct Unidas Podemos, which could be repeated with an improved version of that pact, the union of the PSOE and Sumar, led by the acting Labour Minister Yolanda Díaz.
However, the first coalition government brought many clashes between PSOE ministers and Unidas Podemos, a difficulty that Sumar – and its 15 member parties – will now try to overcome thanks to Díaz’s more moderate profile.
But If no agreement is reached between the PSOE and the pro-independence Catalan forces, it might be necessary to repeat elections, perhaps in December or January 2024.
Sánchez and Díaz need to try to respond to the demands of those who now hold the key to a “Sánchez-II” government, the pro-independence Catalan party Junts per Cataluña (Junts x Cat/Together for Catalonia) of the former president of the Generalitat (Catalan regional government) Carles Puigdemont (Junts x Cat), a fugitive in Belgium, wanted by the Spanish justice.
With its seven valuable seats, the vote in favour or abstention of Junts x Catalunya is essential for Sánchez to take another term in office.
With the warning that “without respecting Catalonia there will be no government”, the spokesperson for the Generalitat, Patrícia Plaja, demanded on Tuesday that Sánchez be “brave and make a move” in the negotiations with the pro-independence parties, to whom she has also asked for “unity” to have “more negotiating strength”.
Negotiations within the framework of the Constitution
Sumar announced Monday that it had commissioned former Catalan MP Jaume Asens to lead talks, albeit personally and not on behalf of Sánchez, with all Catalan pro-independence forces to gather the necessary majority to form a new coalition government.
Partido Popular admitted Tuesday that it is complicated for them to achieve a majority to form a government but believes it must try because the alternative of Sánchez, who now depends on Puigdemont and Arnaldo Otegi, the leader of Basque separatist party EH Bildu, is “terrifying” and “indecent”, PP sources stated.
PSOE has made it clear that in future negotiations with Junts x Catalunya and the pro-independence Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC/Republican Left of Catalonia), his former ally, Sánchez will not allow the Spanish constitutional framework to be overstepped and that demands for an amnesty and a referendum on self-determination for Catalonia are unacceptable red lines.
[Edited by Alice Taylor]
Read more with EURACTIV
Medical supplies to NI still under threat despite protocol reform, report warnsThe supply of over 50% of veterinary medicines to Northern Ireland is at risk of being discontinued after 2025 despite the reforms to the Northern Ireland protocol, a UK parliament committee has warned the government in a new report published on Tuesday (25 July).
Source: euractiv.com
