Spain opens ‘new page in democracy’ as Rajoy is forced out in corruption scandal
Socialist party leader takes reins after no-confidence vote and promises talks with Catalan separatists
PEDRO SÁNCHEZ, the leader of Spain’s socialist party, will formally take office today as the country’s new prime minister having led a swift campaign to remove Mariano Rajoy and break his party’s fragile grip on power.
Mr Sánchez, a pro-european moderate, will be sworn in before King Felipe in Madrid after narrowly squeezing through a vote of no-confidence in Mr Rajoy, whose People’s Party (PP) has been mired in a corruption scandal.
It comes as the crisis in Catalonia overcame a major milestone, with Madrid agreeing to lift direct rule on the separatist-controlled Barcelona parliament.
Mr Sánchez said last night that his government would resume dialogue with Catalonia’s pro-independence forces, after he relied on separatists in the Spanish parliament to help him push Mr Rajoy out of office.
Quim Torra, the new Catalan president, will today oversee the swearing in of his team of regional ministers. He agreed to name a cabinet that did not include any politicians under investigation for alleged criminal activities surrounding last October’s unlawful referendum on independence.
Mr Sánchez, 46, stressed yesterday, however, that he would seek further agreement with Catalonia over its push for independence “from within constitutional bounds”.
Mr Torra reacted on Twitter by saying that “the government that sent in the police against citizens who were exercising their right to vote has fallen”.
But the Catalan leader ended his message in obdurate fashion: “We continue. We have a republican mandate to fulfil.”
The pair clashed just weeks ago, with Mr Sánchez accusing Mr Torra of racism for a string of anti-spanish articles and social media posts.
In a further complication to future talks, Mr Sánchez has recently backed the PP in its hardline position of suspending the Catalan parliament’s powers and placing direct rule from Madrid over the region while efforts were made in Barcelona to install Carles Puigdemont, the exiled former president.
Mr Rajoy was ousted after losing a motion of no-confidence vote sparked by fury over corruption that has embroiled the PP, whose former treasurer and a host of other former party officials were found guilty of profiting from a slush fund last week.
Mr Rajoy, who had forged a reputation as a great political survivor before the abrupt end to his six-and-a-halfyear rule, told congress before the vote that it had been “an honour to be prime minister and leave Spain in a better place than where I found it”.
“A new page in this country’s democracy has opened,” Mr Sánchez said yesterday, adding work towards “social stability” in Spain.
The vote to replace Mr Rajoy with Mr Sánchez was backed by the Leftwing Podemos, the Basque Nationalist Party and the two main pro-independence forces from Catalonia.
Mr Sánchez’s PSOE has just 84 of 350 seats and will need to cobble together multi-party support for governing until new elections are held. that he would cohesion and
‘For the first time, we may get a prime minister who didn’t win elections’
Mr Sánchez won the no-confidence vote with 180 votes, a slim majority in the 350-seat lower house.
There were 169 no votes and one lawmaker abstained.
But Rafael Hernando, a PP politician, told Mr Sánchez he would be entering the prime minister’s office “through the back door” after failing to win the vote in 2015 and 2016. “For the first time we may get a prime minister who didn’t win elections,” he said. Pedro Sánchez is Spain’s seventh prime minister since the country’s 1975 return to democracy.
Mr Sánchez, 46, has proved himself to be a resilient and somewhat Machiavellian operator.
Cast out by his party after a dismal election, he rode a wave of grassroots activism to return.
But Mr Sánchez does not wish to rock the boat in terms of market confidence and has promised to maintain the Rajoy budget for 2018.
His ability to win support across the political spectrum to oust Mr Rajoy suggests that he has matured during his exile.
But it is to Catalonia that Mr Sánchez must now apply his skills, to bridge the gap between Madrid and Barcelona.
♦ German federal prosecutors have filed a formal request to extradite Mr Puigdemont to Spain, where he faces charges of rebellion and corruption. The Catalan was detained in Germany in March on a European arrest warrant from Spain for his role in Catalonia’s failed independence bid but a court in Schleswig-holstein released him on bail on April 6 after ruling he could not be extradited for rebellion – which is not punishable under German law.