Down but not out: Spain's PM Sanchez faces country's ire and long road ahead
By Belén Carreño and Joan Faus
MADRID/BARCELONA (Reuters) -After Spain's Socialists failed to clinch a majority in a July election, it was clear they would have to do a deal with smaller parties, including Catalan separatists, for Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to remain in power.
But when the deal, forged over months of tense negotiations, finally landed on Thursday and confirmed Catalan independence activists would be given amnesty in return for their support, it still sent shockwaves around the country.
Opposition leaders described it as a «giving in to blackmail» by independence leaders, a «humiliation of the judiciary» and a signal a country not yet 50 years past the death of Francisco Franco was veering back to «dictatorship».
Just holding the deal together through a full four-year parliamentary term will be a tough challenge, many predict.
As well as committing to an amnesty, the deal Sanchez's Socialist party (PSOE) signed with the hardline Catalan party Junts agreed talks on a separatist wishlist that includes a fresh independence referendum and more control over tax revenue.
Junts chief Carles Puigdemont, in exile in Belgium where he fled to avoid charges as leader of Catalonia during the unilateral independence declaration of 2017, confirmed on Thursday his support would be conditional, dependent on a «permanent negotiation that yields results and that those are accomplished throughout the legislative term».
Without the support of Junts — and with the vengeful opposition of the conservative People's Party (PP) that controls the senate — the Socialists could struggle to pass legislation including budgets, risking a vote of no confidence against Sanchez, in power since 2018, or the forcing of a snap election.
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