Spain's Sanchez secures another term, ending four-month deadlock

[November 16, 2023]  By Belén Carreño and Emma Pinedo

MADRID (Reuters) -Spain's parliament on Thursday voted to make Pedro Sanchez prime minister for another term, ending a protracted deadlock after an inconclusive general election in July.

His Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) had reached separate deals with a number of regional parties to earn their backing, including a contentious bill on amnesty for Catalan separatists that has sparked protests across Spain.

Sanchez's bid garnered 179 votes in favour and 171 against, with no abstentions. The "nays" stemmed from the conservative People's Party, the far-right Vox and the People's Union of Navarre's lone lawmaker.

PSOE's hard-left ally Sumar, Catalan pro-independence parties Junts and ERC, Basque parties PNV and EH Bildu, Galicia's BNG and the Canary Coalition all voted for Sanchez, who has governed Spain since 2018.

Sanchez's confirmation as premier ends months of uncertainty. Alberto Nunez Feijoo, a candidate with the conservative People's Party (PP), won the most seats but failed to secure enough support from other parties in his own bid to lead the country.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz congratulated Sanchez on social media platform X.

"It is good that we can continue to work side by side," Scholz said. "We see many challenges in the world from a very similar perspective."

The amnesty bill has angered many Spaniards. It proposes exculpating politicians and activists who took part in an attempt to separate Catalonia from Spain that reached its apex in 2017. The bill was registered in parliament on Monday.

As the vote was completed, protesters outside parliament shook barricades erected by police and shouted their dissent.

About 400 protesters were congregated outside parliament, authorities said.

Spain's acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez applauds on the day of an investiture debate, as Spain's Socialists seek to clinch a new term following a deal with the Catalan separatist Junts party for government support, a pact which involves amnesties for people involved with Catalonia's failed 2017 independence bid, in Madrid, Spain November 16, 2023. REUTERS/Susana Vera

Javier, 25, of the youth group Revuelta linked to Vox, said nightly demonstrations outside PSOE headquarters in Madrid that began a fortnight ago would continue on Thursday night.

Alberto Nunez Feijoo, whose PP won the most seats in the July vote, walked across the chamber to shake Sanchez's hand as leftist lawmakers applauded and cheered, while Vox party leader Santiago Abascal walked out.

Feijoo, who accused Sanchez of undermining the rule of law over the amnesty, on Wednesday called for mass protests on Saturday Nov. 18.

The European People’s Party (EPP) said on Thursday that the European Parliament had approved its request for a debate next week on whether the amnesty threatens judicial independence in Spain.

Esteban Gonzalez Pons, vice secretary of the PP, said the fact that the rule of law in Spain would be debated in the European Parliament was a "humiliation for Spain's prestige."

(Reporting by Belen Carreño, Emma Pinedo, Inti Landauro and Corina Rodriguez; Writing by Charlie Devereux and Andrei Khalip; Editing by Sharon Singleton and Aislinn Laing)

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