![]() He’s had to win the leadership of his party twice after being ousted by an internal revolt the first time around. The PP itself has called for nationwide protests for Sunday.Īfter years on the fringes of national politics and with Puigdemont living in self-imposed exile in Belgium, the Junts party was handed a chance to reshape the agenda when Sanchez and his more regular partners were left a handful of votes short of a majority. While the protests have been aimed at the government and separatists, there have also been islamophobic chants and criticism of the PP, whose main leaders have kept away for from the demonstrations. The PP won the most seats in July’s election but was unable to stitch together a governing coalition in a legislature still bitterly divided by the Catalan issue.ĭemonstrations have included clashes with the police, who have used tear gas against demonstrators. He’s also confronted with an angry opposition from PP and Vox.īoth are vehemently opposed to the amnesty, which will allow former Catalan President Carles Puigdemont to return to Spain six years after he tried to split the country. The deal opens a complicated new chapter in Spanish politics with the 51-year-old premier reliant on a patchwork alliance of seven different parties to pass legislation. They agreed to negotiate taxation rules, Catalan financial autonomy and to allow Junts to propose holding an independence referendum. The two parties “confirm that the current political situation allows for an agreement to open a new opportunity to resolve the historic conflict around the political future of Catalonia,” they said. Still, a vote will only be held once the amnesty law is agreed on and a bill is registered in parliament, which needs to be done before Nov. With the support of seven lawmakers from Junts, Sanchez is poised to win a confidence vote with the backing of 178 lawmakers in the 350-member parliament in Madrid. ![]() Vidal-Quadras was shot in the face and the shooter was picked up by an accomplaice waiting on a motobike, according to ABC. ![]() “We hope the state security services catch those murderers as soon as possible and that no one ever offers them amnesty,” Abascal said at a televised press briefing in which he labeled Sanchez a dictator and appealed to his supporters to protest with peaceful acts of civil disobedience.Ībascal also said Vidal-Quadras, who he called a friend, was out of danger. Vox’s leader Santiago Abascal has taken part of the demonstrations. The amnesty has come under wide-spread criticism from Vox and the PP and there have been protests outside the Socialist headquarters in Madrid every evening for almost a week. In exchange for the support, Sanchez pledged to pass an amnesty bill for hundreds of Catalans facing criminal charges in connection to the region’s failed 2017 independence declaration. The shooting came after Sanchez’s Socialist party struck a deal with a Catalan separatist group, paving the way for him to form a new government. Polls suggested that, in last Sunday’s snap election, voters would reject Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s fractious left-wing coalition in favor of the PP – Spain’s main conservative opposition party – which would surely need Vox’s support to take office.Before Vox, Vidal-Quadras had for years been a member for the People’s Party, Spain’s main conservative group, where he held several positions as an elected official. This changed in 2014, when Santiago Abascal founded the Vox party, whose neo-Francoist agenda quickly drew significant support: five years later, Vox won 52 seats in Spain’s parliament.Ī few days ago, Vox appeared to be on the cusp of another milestone: becoming the first far-right party in Spain’s government since the end of Franco’s regime. While many European countries – including Austria, France, Germany, and most of Scandinavia – have long struggled to contain their respective proto-fascist parties, Spain’s center-right People’s Party (PP) succeeded in integrating remaining Francoist forces, thereby diluting their influence. It was also different for not having a far-right party contending for political power – a status it seemed to be losing but has now managed to reclaim. But Spain truly was different in its peaceful transition to democracy after the end of Francisco Franco’s dictatorship – which coined the cliché – and the sweeping modernization that followed. MADRID – “Spain is different” is a phrase that has often been used as a substitute for nuanced analysis of developments in the country.
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