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Soriek  6mo ago (text post)   1141 thread views

Transnational Thursdays 25

This is a weekly thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or IR history. I usually start off with coverage of some current events from a mix of countries I follow personally and countries I think the forum lives in or might be interested in. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.

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Spain

“Spain’s Sánchez waits for Puigdemont”

The Spanish election is a gift that keeps on giving, both the left and right incapable of mounting a majority and forced to beg for third party votes. The Catalan independence party Junts hasn’t budged on their demand that if left wing PM Pedro Sannchez wants their support, amnesty is needed for their leader Carles Puigdemont, a wanted man due to the illegal Catalan independence referendum. For a long time Sanchez held equally strong on this not being a possibility, but lately has seemingly relented. Politico assures us that a deal is nearly in the making…

The talks appeared to be going well last week, so much so that Socialist lawmakers told the press that a deal was “imminent,” especially after they sealed a pact with Catalonia’s other separatist party, the Republican Left of Catalonia. That group agreed to back Sánchez in exchange for the cancellation of €15 billion in regional debt and the control of the Catalan railway network.

But Puigdemont appears determined to make Sánchez sweat for a bit longer before handing over his votes. Despite repeated meetings with the Spanish Socialists’ organizational head, Santos Cerdán, and what is rumored to be a definitive agreement on a blanket amnesty for everyone involved in the failed 2017 Catalan independence referendum, a deal remains elusive…

The potential amnesty remains controversial in Spain. Throughout the weekend spontaneous protests against the measure took place in cities like Madrid and Burgos, and historic Socialist leaders like former Prime Minister Felipe González have slammed the amnesty. But Sánchez’s militants are backing their leader, and on Saturday nearly 90 percent of Socialist Party members ratified their support for his deals in an inner-party consultation.

If the fail to make a coalition then there will be another election, in which the socialists will do worse, ironically because of the very politicking they’re doing right now to win the last election.

The Spanish right-wing seems to be in a continuous state of terminal rage over the fact that separatist movements even exist, and this then leads them to lose again and again to the Spanish left which, while not supporting separatism, at least is able to tactically deal with the fact that these movements exist and have some power within the Spanish electoral system.

This is certainly true at least with regards to Vox, whose existence is a reaction to the Catalonia referendum and whom most third parties have promised not to work with. Vox even promised shortly after the election that they'd support a coalition where they didn't get any ministerships in the government in a desperate attempt to get other parties to hold their nose and back the conservatives.

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