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Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez secured a new term on Thursday as his divisive amnesty deal with Catalan separatists draws the fiercest criticism he has faced since taking power in 2018.
A majority of lawmakers in the Spanish Congress of Deputies voted for Sánchez’s investiture, including separatists who demanded amnesty for the leaders and supporters of an illegal Catalan bid for independence in return for their support.
The amnesty is opposed by the majority of the Spanish population, according to surveys. Faced with street protests, a conservative backlash and opposition from businesses, judges and traditionalists in his own socialist party, Sánchez told parliament on Wednesday that he was “making a virtue out of necessity”.
Acknowledging the uproar, he said: “I’m very aware of that and I want to say to everyone (the critics) that I have a lot of respect for their opinions and emotions. But the circumstances are what they are.” Right-wing lawmakers shouted “shameless” and “liar” as he spoke.
Sánchez secured 179 votes in his favor, with 171 MPs voting against him. Its contentious origins mean it is likely to be unstable, limited and may not survive its full four-year term, analysts said. The two Catalan separatist parties are not part of Sánchez’s coalition, but he will need their votes every time he wants to pass a budget or bill.
Police have deployed 1,600 officers and barricaded parliament to protect it from protests as tensions rise during the two-day investiture proceedings for Sánchez. After the first day on Wednesday, anti-amnesty demonstrators gathered for a 12th consecutive night outside Socialist headquarters.
The amnesty will end criminal cases against several hundred pro-independence leaders and supporters of Catalonia’s 2017 attempt to secede from Spain. Their charges range from sedition and public order offenses to the misuse of public funds.
Sánchez, who has promised to lead a new progressive government, said pardoning them would defuse a long-running conflict over the status of Catalonia and produce a more united Spain through “the path of dialogue, understanding and forgiveness”.
But the most hard-line of the Catalan parties, Together for Catalonia, which said on Thursday it would vote for Sánchez, signaled that their support going forward is not guaranteed if he begins to row over promises made beyond amnesty.
Míriam Nogueras, leader of Together in parliament, was upset by Sánchez’s speech and said it was “not clear” whether he was ready to meet all the terms of the deal struck last week, which covered a range of separatist priorities.
“If those changes are not possible, if things do not move forward, we will not support any initiative presented by any government,” said Nogueras.
The highest-profile beneficiary of the amnesty will be Together leader Carles Puigdemont, who fled to Belgium to avoid arrest in Spain after orchestrating the 2017 referendum on secession and a futile declaration of independence.
Pablo Simón, professor of politics at the Carlos III University of Madrid, said: “The government will start and I think it can at least be half way through a four-year mandate. It will pass its first budget, for sure.”
The budget could become easier to negotiate if it coincides early next year with efforts to pass the amnesty law. Later, Simón said, Kune “will be very keen that we talk a lot about the territorial issue”, meaning the status of Catalonia and another referendum on independence. “And the Socialist Party will be very interested in talking about something else.”
The opposition People’s Party (PP), which this week asked the EU to intervene to stop the amnesty plan, repeated its accusations that it would violate the constitution and ruin the principle of equality before the law.
Alberto Nuñez Feijóo, the leader of PP, told Sánchez: “You are the problem… You and your inability to fulfill your word, your lack of moral boundaries, your pathological ambition.”
Ahead of an inconclusive July election in which the PP won more seats than the Socialists but fell short of a parliamentary majority, Sánchez said he was against amnesty.
“Sánchez won the support of no one. He bought it with checks that we will all pay,” said Feijóo.
Sánchez’s 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.
He came to power by ousting his PP predecessor Mariano Rajoy in a no-confidence vote in 2018 and forming an alliance with smaller parties to hold on to power after a general election the following year.