WORLD WORLDWIDE ITALY News Journal Update - (en) Italy, UCADI #177: Which Government for Spain (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 

The prime minister in charge Pablo Sánchez is preparing to present his

government to Parliament, after the failure of the PPE: to do so he must
resolve the problem of amnesty for the insurgents of Catalonia: the
votes of the two Catalan regional parties are essential to set up the
majority. The amnesty is opposed not only by the PPe, but also Vox and
nationalists across Spain who are not willing to pay this price. Sanchez
has the consensus of Sumar, a platform of 15 progressive forces led by
the current Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz; he managed to negotiate
support for the Government with the other regional parties in exchange
for concessions that concern the interests of the territories they
represent, but Junts for Catalunya (JuntsxCat), a centre-right Catalan
independence party, is still outside of the agreements.
The "linguistic prejudicial" posed by the many regional parties was
satisfied, as part of the agreement for the election of the Presidency
of Parliament, when on 20 September, with the debut of the chamber's
work, the so-called express reform passed, for which today the languages
co-official, are, in addition to Castilian, Basque, Catalan and
Galician, the real stumbling block
today is the amnesty for the events in Catalonia in 2017, which the
right absolutely does not want to grant.
On the other hand, in the imminence of the European elections, the
international protection granted to Puigdemont, former President of the
Catalan autonomy, as he was elected to the European Parliament, is about
to expire and exposes him to possible arrest by the Spanish justice
system. But the issue does not only concern the Catalan leader, because
there are a thousand municipal and autonomic officials investigated or
sent to trial for having followed the instructions of political leaders,
which means having to proceed with the holding of trials for years and
the continuous re-proposal of a fracture that no longer serves even the
PPe, nor the Catalan independentists, and actually prevents everyone
from governing on the whole.
These are charges with which national and European courts are forced to
deal, having rejected extradition requests for the pro-independence
leaders, judging the crime hypotheses to be exaggerated and not finding
equivalents in their legislation that would allow the judges to rule.
Not only that, but the legal proceedings will soon be examined by the
European Court of Human Rights. Therefore, to bring the Catalan question
back to political management, something is needed, such as an amnesty,
which may or may not be a referendum, or legislative measures that
cannot be dismantled by judges and checks on legitimacy and
constitutionality, as has already happened, and that they bring the
management of the issue back to politics.
It must be taken into account that the Catalan independence parties, in
the last regional elections in February 2021, had together exceeded 50%
of the votes; the ERC had obtained 21.3% of the votes, JuntsxCat 20%,
the far-left United Popular Candidacy (CUP) 6.6%. In total the three
parties had obtained 74 seats,
significantly exceeding the absolute majority of 68 deputies in the
regional Parliament. They were therefore able to form the regional
government, but if you look at the results of the political elections
last July, Sánchez proved to be the only one capable of managing to
contain Catalan autonomy, so much so that he reduced the consensus of
the secessionist parties in the region at just 20%, proof is that the
true recognized winner of the elections in Catalonia is the PSOE which
has proven to be the only political force capable of managing the
autonomist demand today, reducing it.

The question of amnesty

The national vote on 23 July marked the end of bipartisanship in Spain.
The vote resulted in a fragmented Parliament in which neither of the two
main parties, nor of the two blocs, can govern independently. The
absolute majority is 176 seats out of 350, but starting from the second
vote it is enough that the yes votes exceed the no votes; Feijóo leader
of the Right has 172 - PPe (137), Vox (33) and difficulty finding
others. Sánchez has 152 - Psoe (121) and Sumar (31) - but has secured
the support of Coalición Canaria (Cc, 1), of the Unión del Pueblo
Navarro (UPN, 1), of Esquerra republicana de Catalunya (Erc , 7), EH
Bildu (6), Partido nacionalista Vasco (Pnv, 5) and Bloque Nacional
gallego (Bng, 1), but to reach the majority, Sánchez needs the votes of
Junts (6), with whom the negotiation is ongoing and concerns amnesty.
In this situation, an amnesty law, the recognition and respect for the
"democratic legitimacy" of the Catalan independence movement and the
creation of a mechanism for verifying the future political agreements of
the autonomous communities with Madrid are among the main preconditions
posed by the Catalans who not only right-wingers have described it as
"political blackmail" to the Spanish central state, but also some old
socialist leaders.
Amnesty and pardon to those involved in the events of October 2017 and a
referendum on the self-determination of Catalonia, however, are the two
main preconditions that JXCat places to vote in favor of the Sánchez
government.
The right, crying betrayal, so much so that Feijóo arrived at Parliament
in a procession and seemed to see a sort of "Fourth Estate" - in tie and
designer clothes - imposing its presence, a political response must be
given. The EPP leader was flanked by mayors and presidents of the
EPP-led autonomous communities, he advanced, marshaling the strength of
the territories against a future government to make it clear that his
opposition will be very harsh. For him, on the other hand, it is an
obligatory path to recover consensus, even in his party, compared to the
President of the Comunidad de Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso (PPe), his
political rival for the leadership of the EPP and considered more right
of him.
Sánchez and Sumar's allies point out to the old leaders of the PSOE, who
consider the proposed blackmail unacceptable, that it is not the first
time that to overcome the political stalemate and the transformation of
the political conflict into a judicial one, Spain has resorted to
amnesty. The law passed during Spain's transition to democracy provided
an amnesty for political prisoners under the dictatorship of Francisco
Franco and a wide range of crimes that could be pardoned, including
political acts, rebellion and sedition - colon particularly
controversial in the current "Catalonia debate". The text also granted
amnesty to authorities, officials and law enforcement officers who had
committed crimes in pursuit of political acts or had violated "the
rights of individuals," along with other crimes.
This is what was pointed out, in turn, by the Catalan separatist leader
Carles Puigdemont, self-exiled in Belgium since 2017, of the Junts Per
Catalunya (JXCat) party, who last week set out his conditions for
starting negotiations with Sánchez and pave the way for a new mandate
for the socialist candidate.

A government short of breath

How long will a government with such a complicated majority and such
precarious internal relations last?
The opposition from Feijóo, from the Madrid media system, will be - as
we have said - very harsh and with no holds barred, aimed at wearing
down Sánchez, but useful, at the same time - at keeping the PPe
together. Sánchez's strength lies in the fact that if his government
lacks the necessary support, Spain will probably have to call new
elections by January 14, 2024, and at the moment no one wants this.
Whether it is a measure that could be an amnesty or whether it is called
this or otherwise, sooner or later, something that may or may not be a
referendum will establish the path to bringing the Catalan question back
to politics. All of this, without legislative loopholes that can be
dismantled by judges and by checks on legitimacy and constitutionality
and on the condition that requests such as those coming from some
pro-independence sectors, which are inadmissible and suicidal such as
those for crimes that have nothing to do with politics, are not
accepted. , such as that of false accounting and public deeds for
contracts awarded to friends, such as those for which the former
president of Parliament Laura Borràs was convicted.
What seems certain is that the PSOE, with Sánchez, has managed to
interpret the new times, while the PPe is beginning to see very keenly
the iceberg constituted by the fact that to deal with the crisis of
bipartisanship the People's Party has resorted to alliance with the
ultra-right, claiming to play the role of a party with a majority
vocation and not calculating that its growth would have occurred at the
expense of Vox itself, putting into crisis that right-wing formation
that its old leader José María Aznar has strongly desired and
contributed to creating with his Foundation for Social Analysis and
Studies (FAES), precisely with the aim of influencing from the outside,
by moving it to the right, the People's Party of which he had lost
control and hoped to regain for through his protégé, the president of
the Community of Madrid Isabel Díaz Ayuso. In other words, Feijóo
persists in being the leader of a party that is only partly his, as
evidenced by the fact that the day after the electoral victory, the
militants, under the balcony on which the leadership of the victorious
party was performing, were the Ayuso that they called for!
But there are also many obstacles on Sánchez's path, so much so that, at
present, the most probable outcome of this race for government is new
elections. However, the fact remains that Sánchez has proven to be a
fighter capable of mobilizing his voters and contributing significantly
to the fortunes of the left in Europe, helping to stem the advance of
populism and the right with a left alternative , albeit reformist, with
regards to the protection of rights, material conditions, wages, work
and the social state. In any case, his comeback in consensus and the
electoral outcome contributes significantly to keeping the debate open
on the definition of the majority in Europe after the upcoming
elections. And these days that's no small thing!

G. C.

https://www.ucadi.org/2023/10/21/quale-governo-per-la-spagna/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca