Spain’s socialists strike deal with separatists, pave the way for second Sanchez term

Acting Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez could be sworn in for a second term sooner than expected after his Socialist Party, PSOE, struck a deal with Catalonia’s Republican Left to meet its last demand that parliament pass an amnesty law for those involved in the 2017 secession attempt.

While the formal “yes” of Catalonia’s Republican Left (ERC) was still missing after PSOE’s third-in-command, Santos Cerdán, met with separatist leader Carles Puigdemont (JxCat) on Monday, the party that backed Sanchez following the last elections, finally gave in.

The controversial amnesty law is indeed expected to be registered in parliament on Thursday, while the first vote on Sánchez’s investiture – which PSOE wants to pass by a simple majority – could take place as early as 8 or 9 November, public broadcaster RTVE reported on Wednesday.

To take part in the congress of the Party of European Socialists (PES) in Malaga on 10-11 November as Spain’s new prime minister, Sánchez is pressing PSOE to speed up negotiations.

But the all-important deal has already been criticised by Miguel Tellado, Deputy Secretary of the main opposition party in parliament, the Partido Popular (PP/EPP).

He lamented PSOE’s “hypocrisy” for striking a deal the same day Princess Leonor swore allegiance to the Constitution on Tuesday. The agreement is the “biggest attack on the rule of law in our democratic history”, said Tellad, El País reported.

Initially, JxCat and ERC set the amnesty law and the holding of a referendum on Catalan self-determination as the two necessary conditions for their support for another Sanchez government, but while the latter was ruled out as contrary to the constitution, the former was already in the PSOE’s political pipeline after the snap general election on 23 July.

For the time being, Puigdemont and the president of the Catalan regional government (Generalitat), Pere Aragonès (ERC), seem satisfied with Sánchez agreeing to the first of their demands, political analysts pointed out on Wednesday.

After Monday’s symbolic “Brussels photo”, as defined by Spanish media, Sánchez and Aragonès sealed an agreement on the content of the amnesty law and delegated their negotiating teams to finalise the details, closing the complex circle of political concessions to pro-independence forces.

However, the text must still be validated by JXCat, whose seven seats are decisive for the socialist candidate to return to power.

Both leaders also reached an agreement that includes “political and economic” topics to be discussed and developed in the next legislature, including more transfers of competencies from Madrid to Catalonia, PSOE and ERC sources told EFE on Wednesday.

Key to the new agreement

Key to the agreement is that the separatist party has managed to ensure that the future amnesty law will also cover those investigated in cases related to the former pro-independence platform Democratic Tsunami and the Committees for the Defence of the Republic, ERC sources told EFE.

The future amnesty law must indeed “include all political reprisals”, Patrícia Plaja, a spokesperson of Catalonia’s regional government, has said about those prosecuted not only for the serious events of 2017 but also for previous cases.

Tsunami Democrático was created in 2019 by several leading figures from Catalan civil society and political parties to oppose court decisions outlawing events that promoted the region’s independence between 2012 and 2021.

The Committees for the Defence of the Republic was founded in 2017 to push for an independence referendum shortly after the Constitutional Court suspended and declared unlawful the one held in Catalonia on 1 October that year.

ERC sources told EFE that the text of the future amnesty law will not mention the alleged criminal nature of the referendum of 1 October 2017, as also demanded by JxCat.

PP and VOX step up the fight

Sánchez’s agreements with JxCat, ERC, Sumar, the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), the Basque separatist EH Bildu, and other regional formations now pave the way for him to be in office for another four-year term.

However, Sanchez is also likely to face fierce opposition from PP and VOX, the former being the main opposition group with a Senate majority and the latter the third largest force in parliament.

Both parties have already announced that they will call for new demonstrations, following the one VOX held in protest of the amnesty law in Madrid last Saturday. Several civil society organisations called a demonstration against the extraordinary measure of grace for 18 November.

Meanwhile, PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo reiterated that he will file a lawsuit before the Constitutional Court to try to stop Sánchez’s “surrender” to Catalan separatists.

(Fernando Heller | EuroEFE.Euractiv.es)