Pedro Sanchez, Spain's acting prime minister, told parliament on Saturday that the only way out of the current political crisis is to resume dialogue with Catalonia and find a political solution to the problem, during a debate on his candidacy
MADRID (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th January, 2020) Pedro Sanchez, Spain's acting prime minister, told parliament on Saturday that the only way out of the current political crisis is to resume dialogue with Catalonia and find a political solution to the problem, during a debate on his candidacy.
Sanchez blamed the current political tensions regarding Catalonia's potential independence on the failure of former-Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's administration.
"We inherited this crisis, the PSOE [Spanish Socialist Workers' Party] warned about this when we were in opposition. We accept the responsibility to return this political conflict back to politics - subject to law and all institutional responsibility. This will allow us to leave behind the judicial drift that has caused so much pain and division in a large part of Catalan and Spanish society," Sanchez told lawmakers.
The acting prime minister stated that he was committed to finding a legal solution to the tensions raised by Catalonia's bid for independence following an October 2017 referendum, which Madrid called illegal, in which over 90 percent of voters supported the region's independence from Spain. Sanchez added that dialogue between Catalan and Spanish lawmakers was the only means to resolve the ongoing tensions.
On Saturday, Spain's Congress of Deputies began a debate on Sanchez's proposals to form a permanent government. On November 10, the PSOE leader topped the polls but failed to win an absolute majority in parliament. The PSOE won 120 of 350 seats, failing short of an absolute majority. Sanchez struck a deal the Unidas Podemos party, who have 35 seats in parliament, but the PSOE will need the support of other minority parties in order to lead a coalition government.
The Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) party offers Sanchez the potential to crucially win a majority in a vote of confidence due to take place on Tuesday. ERC won 13 seats at the November elections and have agreed to abstain in any vote of confidence.
While this might not help Sanchez in the first vote on Sunday, which requires an absolute majority, a second vote on Tuesday will be held which requires the overall number of yes votes, to outweigh the number of no votes. As it stands, Sanchez is predicted to receive 167 votes in favor, 164 against and 19 abstentions on Tuesday.
Sanchez's plans to form a government after a year of political instability may be hampered by Friday's decision by Spain's National Electoral board to ban the head of Catalonia's regional government and ERC ally, Quim Torra, from holding a seat in the regional parliament, as well as block ERC's jailed leader Oriol Junqueras from taking a seat in the European Parliament. The ERC governs Catalonia in coalition with the Junts per Catalunya party.
During the course of 2019, Spain has been in a protracted political crisis. Two snap parliamentary elections were called in April and November of this year, with both elections failing to return a majority. Sanchez has been acting prime minister since the April election.
