Spanish PM Sánchez wins Catalan separatist party support to form government

Spain's acting prime minister Pedro Sánchez has won the support of Catalonia's largest separatist party with the promise of open talks on the region's future in a bid to end the country's political deadlock.

The deal is set to allow Mr  Sánchez to form a left-wing coalition government, marking the end of almost a year of political uncertainty in Spain.

Mr Sánchez's Socialist (PSOE) party has agreed to hold negotiations over the status of Catalonia in return for political support for the coalition from the Catalan Republican Left (ERC).

In return, the ERC has said it will abstain in a parliamentary confidence vote next Tuesday that will allow Mr Sánchez to form a government with the hard-Left Podemos party, months after he won Spain's fourth election in four years last November.  

However, the stability of a government that has plans to raise taxes on the wealthy and businesses while boosting Spain’s minimum wage beyond 1,000 euros a month is likely to depend on the success of the proposed talks on Catalonia.

Early in 2019, Mr Sánchez’s first spell as prime minister was cut short when Catalan pro-independence parties refused to pass the PSOE’s proposed budget, sparking the first of two general elections in the year.

As conservative opposition parties signalled their alarm at  talks with a completely open agenda on Catalonia’s status, PSOE leaders on Friday sought to downplay any chance that the region could secede from Spain.

“We don’t support a referendum on independence,” said José Luis Ábalos, Socialist party secretary.

“We are willing to discuss any initiative around the table. But, clearly, that is not the same as accepting any initiative.”

The PSOE has supported a federal approach to Spanish regional demands, maintaining that the right to self-determination is not included in the Constitution or covered by international law in the case of Catalonia.

But the ERC, whose leader, Oriol Junqueras, is serving a 13-year jail sentence for his part in organising an unlawful 2017 referendum on independence for Catalonia, says its aim is to secure a referendum on sovereignty in a region where around 48 per cent have supported separatist parties in the past two regional elections.

“The proposal the Catalan government must put forward is self-determination and amnesty,” said the ERC’s spokeswoman in Congress, Marta Vilalta, referring to the party’s demand that Mr Junqueras and eight other separatist leaders be freed from prison.

The Solicitor General’s Office, a state legal service under the aegis of Spain’s Justice Ministry, has asked the Supreme Court to release Mr Junqueras in response to a European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling that he should be allowed to take up his seat after being elected as an MEP last May.

Carles Puigdemont, the former president of Catalonia who avoided going on trial by moving to Belgium in late 2017, has seen his demand to be recognised as an MEP acknowledged by the European Parliament after the ECJ’s ruling. Mr Puigdemont criticised the ERC for negotiating unilaterally with the PSOE, but said yesterday that all pro-independence parties should now discuss a shared strategy for the negotiation process.

Mr Sánchez will be pressed on what he is willing to concede in the planned talks on Catalonia when the debate ahead of the confidence vote in his leadership takes place on Saturday.

Pablo Casado, leader of the conservative Popular Party, said the agreement with ERC “liquidates Spanish sovereignty”, while the leader of the hard-Right Vox, Santiago Abascal, has described the idea that Catalans be allowed to vote on any changes that affect the configuration of Spain as a “coup d´état”.

While PSOE and Podemos do not have enough parliamentary support to win an absolute majority in the first confidence vote due on Sunday, the ERC’s promise to abstain will see Mr Sánchez approved as prime minister by a simple majority 48 hours later.