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Spain’s ruling Socialist party has sealed a contentious amnesty deal with Catalan separatists that will pave the way for caretaker prime minister Pedro Sánchez to secure another term in office.
The deal was unveiled on Thursday by the Socialists and the hardline separatists of Together for Catalonia. The announcement was made in Brussels, where the Catalan party’s chief Carles Puigdemont is a fugitive from Spanish justice and probable amnesty beneficiary.
The pact is already sparking outrage on the right over the move to absolve hundreds of people of wrongdoing over a failed and unlawful Catalan bid for independence, which caused Spain’s worst political crisis in decades six years ago.
To pave the way for Sánchez’s investiture by a November 27 deadline, an amnesty law must now be registered in parliament, even though it will not be approved by lawmakers for weeks or even months. Following an inconclusive July general election, Sánchez needs the support of smaller parties in parliament to reach a 176-seat majority.
The pact will open a rancorous and potentially explosive new chapter in Spanish politics. Sánchez says that he is defusing long-running Catalan tensions, but opponents accuse him of political expediency and trashing the rule of law.
The prospect of a deal has triggered several nights of protests outside the Socialist party headquarters in Madrid, where supporters of the opposition Popular party (PP) and the hard-right Vox group have mixed with neo-Nazis blamed for violent clashes with police.
In a separate development, police said Alejo Vidal-Quadras, a Vox politician who previously led the PP in Catalonia, was shot in the face in Madrid on Thursday, in an attack whose motive was unknown. He was later treated in hospital.
The accord between the Socialists and Together, known as Junts in Catalan, says it will “open a new stage and contribute to resolving the historic conflict over Catalonia’s political future”.
“The will and the opportunity is real,” said Santos Cerdán, a top Socialist official. He signed the accord with Together secretary-general Jordi Turull, who served more than three years in prison over the independence push before being pardoned by Sánchez in 2021.
But the pact also acknowledges profound differences between the parties. It says Together is committed to pursuing a referendum on independence within the bounds of the constitution, although many legal experts say that is impossible. The Socialists firmly deny the legality of the 2017 vote and want to revive a 2006 autonomy statute that was struck down by the courts.
Puigdemont said “we are entering an unprecedented phase that we must explore and exploit”, but added that there was still profound mistrust between the parties.
An amnesty law will end the prosecution, prison terms or other penalties facing hundreds of independence supporters who backed the Catalan bid to break away from Spain.
Òmnium Cultural, a pro-independence campaign group, estimates that as many as 1,400 people could be affected, among them those convicted for crimes ranging from public order offences to the misuse of public funds.
Puigdemont, a divisive figure in Spain, fled the country as Catalonia’s regional president in 2017 to escape detention after he led the referendum and a futile declaration of independence that followed.
Sánchez, whose Socialists fell far short of a parliamentary majority in the July election, is being accused by conservatives of forming a “Frankenstein 2.0” government — a nod to the expanded array of small parties whose votes he has cobbled together to retain power.
Isabel Díaz Ayuso, a leading PP figure and head of the Madrid region, said the pact was “bringing in a dictatorship through the back door”. Cuca Gamarra, PP secretary-general, called it “a shameful and humiliating agreement”.
Analysts said the new government’s fragile dependence on Puigdemont’s party would mean instability, difficulty passing legislation and the possibility it might not survive its full four-year term.
“The legislature is conditional on the fulfilment of the conditions of the agreement. Without compliance, the legislature cannot move forward,” said Puigdemont.
Sánchez’s second term will follow five years in which he led the country through a traumatic pandemic, claimed credit for the relatively strong recent performance of its economy and sought to boost Spain’s presence on the international stage.
An astute tactician, he came to power by ejecting his PP predecessor Mariano Rajoy in a vote of no confidence in 2018 then emerged victorious from a general election the following year.
Emily Foster is a globe-trotting journalist based in the UK. Her articles offer readers a global perspective on international events, exploring complex geopolitical issues and providing a nuanced view of the world’s most pressing challenges.
