Pedro Sánchez to be reappointed as leader of a divided Spain

Pedro Sánchez will obtain the confidence of Spanish deputies on Thursday to remain in office. the head of a deeply divided country. face to face his decision to grant an amnesty law to Catalan independentists in exchange for their support.

In power since 2018, the socialist is guaranteed to obtain 179 votes in a vote scheduled for the day, a number greater than the absolute majority set at 176.

Once invested by the deputies, Mr. Sánchez will be able to form a new government in the coming days with his allies in the far-left Sumar coalition, putting an end to nearly four months of blockage since the legislative elections of July 23.< /p>

Coming second in this election behind his conservative rival Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the Prime Minister has had to negotiate in all directions in recent weeks to seal agreements with several regionalist groups, whose support is crucial in the absence of a clear majority in Parliament.

Catalan separatist Carles Puigdemont, November 9, 2023 in Brussels © AFP – John THYS

In particular, he had to discuss with the party of Catalan separatist Carles Puigdemont, who has been living in Belgium for six years to escape the legal proceedings launched against him for having led the attempted secession of Catalonia in 2017.

< p>Agreeing, after intense negotiations, to support the reappointment of Mr. Sánchez, Mr. Puigdemont obtained from the socialists the upcoming adoption of an amnesty law for hundreds of separatists pursued by the courts, which will allow you to return to Spain.

– “Healing the wounds” –

Exposing to deputies the priorities of his new mandate, Pedro Sánchez defended on Wednesday the necessity and constitutionality of this measure, to which he was nevertheless opposed in the past.

This amnesty is necessary to “heal the wounds “opened by the 2017 crisis, declared the Prime Minister, ensuring that he wanted to guarantee “the unity of Spain through dialogue and forgiveness.”

< /p>The leader of the Popular Party (PP) Alberto Nunez Feijoo in Congress on November 15, 2023 © AFP – JAVIER SORIANO

The Popular Party (PP) of Mr. Feijóo accuses the socialist of having conceded for the sole purpose to remain in power at all costs and raises the risk that Spain finds itself in the sights of the EU, like Hungary or Poland, due to the attack on the rule of law what constitutes, according to him, this proposed law.

Rejected, according to several polls, by a majority of Spaniards, this amnesty brought hundreds of thousands of people into the streets on Sunday, at the call of the PP. A new mobilization, in which the leaders of the PP and the far-right Vox party will participate, is planned for Saturday in Madrid.

“Amnesty will not improve coexistence” between Spaniards, denounced Wednesday Mr. Feijóo, for whom the country will be “condemned to division” as long as Pedro Sánchez remains in power.

Daily rallies of the far right – which goes so far as to describe the Prime Minister as a “dictator” and accuse him of a “coup d'état” – also degenerated last week in front of the headquarters of the Socialist Party in Madrid.

Due to these tensions, more than 1,600 police officers will be deployed again on Thursday around Parliament, which has been completely cordoned off since Wednesday by the police. A device equivalent to that of a football match classified as high risk.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez at Congress, November 15, 2023 ©  AFP – JAVIER SORIANO

In this context, Mr. Sánchez on Wednesday called on the opposition for “responsibility” and not to “take advantage of this situation to set fire to the street.”

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