Only the last two pieces were missing to solve the complicated puzzle of Pedro Sanchez’s negotiations. And today they have arrived, with the signing of the agreements between the PSOE and the moderate Basque nationalists of the PNV at the Congress of Deputies, followed by those with Coalition Canaria. The socialist leader, undisputed champion of resilience, thus collects, at least on paper, the 179 votes (out of 350) necessary to be re-elected prime minister in the first vote next week, also and above all thanks to yesterday in Brussels signed pact with the Catalan independents of the Junts. At the price of controversial concessions – such as the amnesty that annuls crimes committed in over a decade of confrontation between Catalonia and the central state – that are throwing the country into turmoil and mobilizing the right to the streets.
However, as the details of the agreement become known, discontent also grows within the socialist house, where governors like Emiliano Garcia-Page (Castile-La Mancha) do not hesitate to side with the opposition party in Madrid Andalusia, against the amnesty that ” “enabled the release of Carles Puigdemont from prison.” On the same day that the Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Audiencia Nacional considered the evidence insufficient to charge the former Catalan president, who sought refuge in Waterloo after the secession referendum on October 1, 2017, also with crimes of terrorism in the “Democratic Tsunami” investigation.
In the pact signed with the president of the PNV, Andoni Ortuzar, Sanchez committed to transferring to the Basque Country all the powers provided for in the Guernica statute within two years who have not been resettled in the last four decades. Starting with the question of social security, a historic demand of the Basque nationalists. It is no coincidence that Ortuzar defined it in a press conference as “a clear step forward” on the path to “self-government”, which includes the PSOE’s future commitment to dialogue on the “national recognition of Euskadi” for a maximum of two years. And the creation of a permanent bilateral commission between the central government and the Basque government, chaired by the Prime Minister and the Basque “Lehendakari”, to ensure the semi-annual review of the fulfillment of the agreements.
Without prejudice to the red line that the constitutional framework represents for the socialists, in the case of Catalonia, Sánchez, in the opinion of many observers, illustrates Puigdemont’s renunciation of unilateralism. Nobody would have thought that the relaunch of the diverse center-left alliance, despised by the right as “Frankestein” and now the only progressive reserve in the government of southern Europe, would be a flower path for the current socialist prime minister. Rather, it increasingly resembles a narrow path of thorns after even the previously considered loyal members, such as Unidas Podemos, which merged in Sumar, have surprisingly distanced themselves in the last few hours and announced a grassroots consultation on the investiture vote.
At the judicial level, the conflict has moved to Europe after the self-governing body of the judiciary, the Consejo Superior del Poder Judicial, equivalent to the Italian CSM, and all the associations of judges sent to the leaders of the European Commission and the European Commission, have made their decision The European Council and the head of EU diplomacy have issued a statement in which the reference to “lawfare” in the agreement between the Socialists and Puigdemont’s party or the endorsement given by the PSOE and Junts of the setting up of commissions of inquiry, against which is to be taken, is deemed “inadmissible” by judges for allegedly prosecuting members of the independence movement. While the Unified Police Union called for a protest at the Citadel of Justice in Barcelona. In addition, the climate for the violent mobilizations that have been taking place for over a week in front of the PSOE headquarters on Calle Ferraz in Madrid is becoming increasingly heated: the ultra-right Vox has launched a call for mobilization in the streets indefinitely, while the Die People’s Party continues to raise allegations of coup.
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