Spain | The alliance with Carles Puigdemont is a risky bet for Pedro Sánchez

(Madrid) Spanish socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is taking a big risk by allying with Catalan separatist Carles Puigdemont to stay in power, a decision that is fracturing Spanish society and dividing even within his own camp.

In exchange for the essential vote of his party for the inauguration of Mr. Sánchez next week, the Catalan separatist obtained an amnesty law for the hundreds of separatists pursued by the courts – mainly for their involvement in the attempt to secession of 2017 – be adopted soon by Parliament.

Perceived by part of Spanish society as an attack on the rule of law, this amnesty is very controversial in the country, six years after the events of 2017 which constituted one of the worst political crises in contemporary Spain.

The impact of this decision is already being felt in voting intentions.

According to the latest barometer from the government institute CIS, published Friday, the Socialist Party lost 1.3 points in one month (31.3% against 32.6% in October) while the main right-wing party, the Popular Party (PP), gained 1.7 points (33.9% against 32.2%).

Right and extreme right in the street

Coming in first during the July legislative elections but unable to gain power due to lack of sufficient support in Parliament, the PP is trying to mobilize Spaniards in the streets, beyond its ranks, against this future amnesty law.

On Sunday, the conservative party is holding rallies in every major city in the country.

“We are launching an appeal to all outraged citizens, to all Spaniards who do not give up, to all those who want to raise their voice” so that they join these gatherings, launched the number two of the PP, Cuca Gamarra, on Friday.

The far-right party Vox goes much further, calling on Spaniards to “resistance”.

“We have the duty to resist a government and a tyrant who will obtain his inauguration thanks to all the enemies of Spain,” declared Thursday evening the leader of this ultranationalist formation, Santiago Abascal, during a demonstration in front of the headquarters of the Socialist Party (PSOE) in Madrid.

These demonstrations in front of the PSOE, organized every evening for a week, have degenerated since Monday. Thursday evening, 24 people were arrested, according to the prefecture. On Friday, several thousand people gathered again in a tense atmosphere.

Discontent is also growing within the judiciary, and not only among conservative judges.

In a press release, the main associations of magistrates, of all persuasions, judged that the socialists’ agreement with Mr. Puigdemont represented a “breakdown of the separation of powers” and an “unacceptable distrust of the judicial power”.

Puigdemont, unpredictable ally

Scrutinized in Brussels, which this week requested “detailed information”, the amnesty project divides even within the Socialist Party of Pedro Sánchez.

Carles Puigdemont, who fled to Belgium in 2017 to escape legal proceedings, “is guilty, he is not a victim: the judges of this country applied the laws,” the president of the Castile region insisted on Friday. La-Manche, Emiliano García-Page.

In a direct attack on the Prime Minister, this socialist baron judged that “anxiety to govern” should not lead to an agreement with a person wanting to “put an end to the Constitution and the unity of the country”.

Beyond the current rise in tensions, the big question that will arise in the future for Pedro Sánchez is that of the reliability of Puigdemont, who for years had advocated fierce opposition to the left-wing government.

“The dance will now be able to begin,” smiles political scientist Oriol Bartomeus, according to whom “the stability of the government matters little” to the formation of Puigdemont, whose priority is to appear in the eyes of its base in Catalonia as more independent and intransigent than the other major separatist party, ERC.

It’s a risk but “Sánchez has shown that he likes risk,” he emphasizes.