Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez obtained Thursday the support of the party of Catalan separatist Carles Puigdemont, essential for his return to power, in exchange for a very controversial amnesty law which is increasing tension in the country.
After weeks of intense negotiations, Mr. Sánchez’s Socialist Party and Mr. Puigdemont’s formation, Together for Catalonia (Junts per Catalunya), signed an agreement early Thursday morning in Brussels, where the separatist had fled after the failure of Catalonia’s attempt to secede in 2017 in order to escape legal prosecution.
Under this agreement, the seven Junts deputies, whose votes are decisive in a very fragmented Parliament, will vote to return the socialist to power, against whom they advocated head-on opposition in recent years.
The debate and the investiture vote for Pedro Sánchez should be held next week, two weeks before the deadline of November 27, synonymous with calling new elections.
In exchange for Junts’ support, Pedro Sánchez accepted Puigdemont’s demand for an amnesty law for pro-independence leaders and activists pursued by the courts, notably because of their involvement in the 2017 secession attempt, the one of the worst political crises experienced by contemporary Spain.
The red line of the referendum
The two parties also agreed to open negotiations relating in particular to the question of “the recognition of Catalonia as a nation”, specifies the text of the agreement.
Negotiations during which Puigdemont’s party will once again demand the organization of a self-determination referendum, a red line for the government.
Welcoming a “new, unprecedented step” which should “contribute to the resolution of the political conflict in Catalonia”, Carles Puigdemont nevertheless warned that the stability of the next Sánchez government would depend on the progress of these negotiations.
“Without agreements, without respect (of the agreement signed Thursday), the legislature will have no future,” insisted the separatist, to the press in Brussels.
Also speaking from the Belgian capital, the agreement’s socialist negotiator, Santos Cerdán, a close friend of Mr. Sánchez, had earlier stressed that this agreement was intended to ensure the “stability” of the government for four years.
Also supported by the far left and the Basque parties, the amnesty law will have to be adopted by Parliament, once Mr. Sánchez has been invested by the deputies.
This text, which should allow Mr. Puigdemont’s return to Spain, will cover facts dating back to 2012, the year of the rise of separatism in Catalonia, said Santos Cerdán.
Thanks to the Junts agreement, Mr. Sánchez, at the head of the Spanish government since 2018, will manage to remain in power while all the polls predicted, before the summer, the arrival of the right to power after the legislative election of July 23.
The socialist ultimately held up better than expected against his conservative rival from the Popular Party (PP), Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who came first in the poll but was unable to be installed as prime minister at the end of September due to lack of sufficient support in Parliament.
“Spain has lost”, according to the right
After the pardon in 2021 of the separatist leaders sentenced in 2019 to heavy prison sentences for their role in 2017, this new concession from Pedro Sánchez to the separatists increased the tension a notch in Spain.
The right and far right accuse the socialist, who was opposed in the past to the idea of an amnesty, of being ready to do anything to stay in power.
Rallies called by the far right in front of the headquarters of the Socialist Party in Madrid ended Monday and Tuesday in scuffles with the police, images of violence that are quite unusual in Spain. Organizations close to the ultranationalist Vox party called for a new mobilization Thursday evening against what they describe as a “coup d’état”.
“Spain has lost and the separatists are winning” thanks to their “blackmail”, launched Alberto Núñez Feijóo, while the head of Vox, Santiago Abascal, denounced “the beginning of the end of democracy”.
The PP called on its supporters to gather again on Sunday in all department capitals and another large demonstration, in the presence of leaders of the right and the extreme right, is planned in Madrid on Saturday 18.