Ángel Collado
This week Pedro Sánchez begins his own particular obstacle course in order to, beyond remaining in power, manage to govern. The first crisis in his coalition government has already been served by the announcement of the break-up of his far-left allies (Sumar), the race between his Catalan pro-independence allies who are competing to squeeze him and the State has begun, and the complaint about his amnesty law has landed in the European Parliament.
Having won the investiture with 179 votes in favour from the left-wing bloc and all the pro-independence and nationalist groups in Congress, the re-elected head of the executive failed with five who did not see their aspirations satisfied in the distribution of posts, advantages, prominence and perks on which he will stand in the government.
Sánchez managed to convince some thirty parties that gave him their “yes”, but the five representatives of Podemos, the party founded by Pablo Iglesias, confirm that they will abandon the Sumar brand to revive their own project outside of Yolanda Díaz, the vice-president of the Government who was once placed in Sanchez’s Cabinet at the request of Iglesias himself.
Díaz does not count on Iglesias’ successors at the head of Podemos – the former ministers Ione Belarra and Irene Montero – for their share of portfolios in the next coalition cabinet. The response of the offended women, through the mouth of their predecessor, is to warn that from now on they will go it alone in order to run on their own at the head of Podemos in the European elections next June.
While waiting to know when they can make the leap to the Mixed Group in Congress, Sánchez and Díaz lose control over 5 of the 152 permanent deputies (121 from the PSOE plus 31 from Sumar) that the new Executive had in a House of 350 members.
The 32 pro-independence and nationalist MPs are paid in instalments for their support for the Executive and insofar as the agreed timetable of concessions on judicial impunity, self-determination consultations, tax and investment privileges and debt cancellation is fulfilled.
In the race to wrest more power from Sánchez as president of the Spanish government, the Catalan pro-independence Esquerra Republicana, the party headed by Oriol Junqueras and with Pere Aragonés as president of the Generalitat, is already competing with Junts per Catalunya, the party led by Carles Puigdemont.
The former president of the Generalitat, a fugitive from Spanish justice, has an advantage over Junqueras in the amnesty law that is beginning to be processed in Congress as an advance payment in exchange for his seven votes in favour of Sánchez. But ERC, with another seven MPs, can amend the text to gain some prominence in the operation.
The left-wing Republicans do not like or care that they benefit from the “erasure” of crimes promised by such prominent Junts rivals as Laura Borrás, former president of the autonomous parliament convicted of a blatant crime of political corruption: awarding contracts to a friend.
Puigdemont and Junqueras will compete in independence, as well as in their ability and capacity to subject Sánchez to their interests, with an eye on the regional elections in Catalonia, which are tentatively scheduled for next autumn. The two pro-independence formations are playing for hegemony in their electoral space and control of the Generalitat.
The fugitive will confirm that he has the upper hand this month when he puts the head of the Executive through the agreed verification of international mediators who will be in charge of recording the concessions and negotiations opened with Puigdemont.
But the first obstacle that the newly formed government will encounter this week in order to face up to all the mortgages it has signed is in the European Parliament with the debate on the amnesty law.
On Wednesday, the European Parliament will discuss the complaint of the Popular Party and Vox, plus what remains of Ciudadanos, about the threat to the division of powers and the rule of law posed by the plan for judicial and criminal impunity for Catalan independence supporters that Sánchez has presented in Congress.
At the same time that he pleases the pro-independence supporters, the new Spanish government will have to give explanations in the European Union, and also in the Commission, about the hypothetical price it is paying at the expense of the rule of law.
