The main obstacle to the re-appointment of a left-wing government in Spain was removed on Thursday, November 9, paving the way for the possible investiture next week of outgoing Socialist prime minister Pedro Sánchez. The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) has signed an agreement with Junts per Catalunya (Together for Catalonia) offering major concessions to Catalan separatists to win the support of the seven Junts MPs. The Socialist leader had been negotiating in Brussels for weeks with the former president of the Catalan government, Carles Puigdemont, who fled Spanish justice after Catalonia's secession attempt in 2017.
The four-page agreement paves the way for an amnesty law encompassing all people who have "been the subject of judicial decisions or proceedings" linked to the 2014 pro-independence consultation and the 2017 illegal referendum. While the exact terms of the amnesty proposal are not yet known, it is likely to cancel the charges of misuse of public funds as well as those of public disorder. The amnesty could therefore include the disturbances that took place in 2019 after the pro-independence leaders were sentenced to long prison terms for sedition. "None of those who have been hunted down by the Spanish state will be excluded," Puigdemont said in Brussels, hailing a "historic agreement."
The agreement provides for a period of negotiation during which the pro-independence parties will seek financial independence for Catalonia and a referendum on self-determination, which the PSOE continues to oppose. A "verification process" for the agreements led by international mediators has also been included. It has been a long-standing demand of the pro-independence movement, designed to advance their cause while delegitimizing Spanish democracy. In addition, the justification of the investiture deal is based on the traditional separatist arguments, tracing the Catalan conflict back to 1716, when regional institutions were abolished under King Philip V. The agreement also includes a list of grievances against the state to justify the illegal referendum held in 2017.
In addition to these, the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) secured concessions on November 2 to write off 20% of Catalonia's debt – 15 billion euros – and to transfer control of regional railways to the regional government. "It is necessary to form a progressive government as soon as possible to give Spain stability," said Santos Cerdán, the third highest-ranking PSOE official who led the negotiations with Puigdemont, "we are ready to take a new historic step toward a political and negotiated solution to the conflict."
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