Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has won parliament’s backing for a new term in office after striking a controversial deal with Catalan separatists.
In exchange for supporting Sanchez’s Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE), nationalists from the Spanish region of Catalonia secured a commitment from the PSOE leader to pass an amnesty law that would pardon those linked to the botched Catalan bid for independence six years ago.
What’s happening?
Sanchez – prime minister of Spain since 2018 – lost out to the centre-right Popular Party (PP) in the general election four months ago.
But unable to form a government, PP was forced to concede to the PSOE which has enlisted the support of Catalan and Basque nationalists and other regional parties in its bid to govern.
On Thursday, the lower house voted him in as prime minister again, but by a small margin.
Why does the support of Catalan nationalists matter?
Sanchez’s decision to court the Catalan Republican Left (ERC) and the centre-right Junts per Catalunya – parties which support independence for Catalonia – has outraged Spanish conservatives, who decried the amnesty bill.
This despite one minister in the Spanish government, presidency minister and PSOE senior official Felix Bolanos, hailing the legislation as a way to “heal wounds and resolve the existing political conflict in Catalonia”.
Indeed, following news of Sanchez’s decision to pursue legislation intent on pardoning Catalans accused of political sedition, thousands of protesters took to the streets of Spain on Sunday to express their opposition.
