{"id":3144,"date":"2023-10-06T10:55:12","date_gmt":"2023-10-06T10:55:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/influencespain.com\/is-amnesty-really-whats-being-negotiated-agreeing-on-the-united-states-of-iberia\/"},"modified":"2023-10-06T10:56:50","modified_gmt":"2023-10-06T10:56:50","slug":"is-amnesty-really-whats-being-negotiated-agreeing-on-the-united-states-of-iberia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/influenzespain.com\/es\/is-amnesty-really-whats-being-negotiated-agreeing-on-the-united-states-of-iberia\/","title":{"rendered":"Is amnesty really what\u2019s being negotiated? –\u00a0 Agreeing on the United States of Iberia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By: Sebastian Mariz<\/a>, Managing Director of Influence Spain<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n

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Following the July 23 elections, the conservatives obtained a bittersweet victory, but not enough seats to form a new Government.<\/p>\n\n

As such, the leader of the conservatives, Mr. N\u00fa\u00f1ez Feij\u00f3o failed obtaining parliamentary investiture last Tuesday, the 26th of September, forcing the King to call on Mr. Pedro S\u00e1nchez to present his candidacy and to be invested Prime Minister with a similar coalition Government to the previous one. If Mr. Pedro S\u00e1nchez fails to be invested before the 27th of November, he will be forced to call new general elections for the end of the year.<\/p>\n\n

The most likely outcome is that S\u00e1nchez will be invested with 178 seats (needs at least 176) and will revalidate a socialist\/communist coalition government, for a second term, with the parliamentary support of the radical and nationalistic regionalist parties of Catalonia and the Basque Country.<\/p>\n\n

Although this reedition of the left-wing coalition will have 11 more seats in Parliament than in the previous legislature in which it had 167 seats, the opposition has closed the gap and will be only 4 votes shy from a swing to a conservative majority.<\/p>\n\n

This means Mr. Pedro S\u00e1nchez will be more prone to pressure from the smaller regionalist parties and to their demands in areas of transport, mobility, infrastructure, housing, tourism and regional public spending.<\/p>\n\n

It also means that the opposition leader will do everything in his power to try to steal the 5 Basque conservative (PNV) members of parliament from Sanchez and to block any new legislative initiatives thanks to the conservative majority in the Senate and control over most of Spain’s regional governments.<\/p>\n\n

The main demand being made by the Catalan pro-independence groups, in exchange for their vote in favor of re-investing Mr. Pedro S\u00e1nchez as Prime Minister for a second term, is amnesty for the exiled Catalan political leaders who orchestrated the failed referendum on Catalan independence in 2017.\u00a0 But is this really what is being negotiated?<\/p>\n\n

Although amnesty is undoubtedly of primordial importance to the exiled politicians, other issues, possibly of greater relevance than the amnesty demands themselves, have been hinted at in statements to the press, and are undoubtedly the real crux of negotiations between Mr. Pedro S\u00e1nchez and his parliamentary coalition partners from Catalonia, and the Basque Country.<\/p>\n\n

These include crucial issues to policy making, governance and fiscal policy, including:<\/p>\n\n