Sumar, the left-wing party that rules alongside Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s Socialists, on Wednesday called for reforms such as reduced working hours, higher wages and the construction of social housing to support its new government, reports Reuters.
Yolanda Diaz with Pedro Sanchez in parliamentPhoto: Alberto Ortega / Zuma Press / Profimedia
Sanchez, who is acting in the post after the inconclusive parliamentary elections in July, started negotiations on Wednesday with Yolanda Diaz, head of the Sumar party, who also serves as labor minister in his cabinet.
Spain’s King Felipe appointed Sanchez on Tuesday to try to form a parliamentary majority to support his government after the right-wing Alberto Núñez Feijóo failed to do so.
The Spanish People’s Party led by Feijóo won the parliamentary elections, but did not obtain the necessary majority to pass his government through parliament.
For Sanchez, who has been leading Spain since 2018, to secure a new mandate, he needs the votes of “Sumar” and the Catalan and Basque nationalist parties.
“The only scenario we see is a new deal on the government coalition. But any agreement will not be enough, it must be ambitious,” said Nacho Alvarez, spokesman for “Sumar”, after the first round of negotiations with the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party led by Pedro Sanchez.
Pedro Sanchez, facing difficult negotiations with his left-wing partners and Catalan separatists
Alvarez said there were still misunderstandings over “social and work-related aspects” and that his party had called for, among other things, fewer working hours, the promotion of work-life balance and better access to affordable housing.
Catalan separatists, whose support is essential for a new socialist government to win a vote of confidence, are instead demanding a highly controversial amnesty measure for politicians convicted or investigated following Catalonia’s 2017 secession attempt.
Carles Puigdemont, the leader of the Catalan separatists, asked Sanchez last month for an “amnesty law” and the abandonment of all prosecutions.
He stressed that any support from his party would require significant concessions from Sanchez’s Socialists, otherwise Spaniards would go to the polls again. Puigdemont asked Spain to respect the legitimacy of the Catalan independence movement, to create a mechanism to recognize and guarantee the implementation of the agreed agreements, as well as to give up criminal actions against the pro-independence movement.
“Be prepared for elections, but also for negotiations that could end with a historic agreement” regarding the future of Catalonia, which, according to him, should go through the organization of a self-determination referendum. “We did not endure all these years just to save a legislature,” emphasized Puigdemont, who has been in exile in Belgium since 2018.
If no candidate manages to secure a parliamentary majority by November 27, Spaniards will be called back to the polls in a new round of parliamentary elections.
