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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 confirmed on Thursday morning by the Socialists and the hardline separatist party Together for Catalonia. The Catalan party’s chief Carles Puigdemont is a fugitive from Spanish justice and a probable beneficiary of an amnesty.
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 six years ago.
The amnesty law must be approved by Spain’s parliament and would then pave the way for the investiture of Sánchez by November 27. Following an inconclusive July general election, he needs the support of smaller parties in parliament to reach a 176-seat majority.
Santos Cerdán, a top Socialist official who signed the accord with Together, said: “Despite deep divergences [between the parties], we are ready to begin a new era.” Together confirmed there was a deal and is set to make a statement later in the day.
The pact will open a rancorous and potentially explosive new chapter in Spanish politics. Sánchez claims that he is defusing the long-running Catalan conflict, but opponents accuse him of political expediency and trashing the rule of law.
The deal will end the prosecution or prison terms of hundreds of independence supporters who backed a failed Catalan bid to break away from Spain in 2017, which triggered the country’s worst political crisis since its return to democracy more than 40 years ago.
Puigdemont is a divisive figure who has lived in Belgium as a fugitive from Spanish justice since orchestrating the illegal vote on independence six years ago.
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 figure in the opposition People’s party and head of the Madrid region, said the pact was “bringing in a dictatorship through the back door”.
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.
Sánchez’s expected 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.
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