Spain’s minority government offers concessions to Catalan separatists, aiming to mend a crucial alliance and avert a political crisis.
MADRID: Spain’s minority leftist government has approved measures aimed at winning back Catalan separatists whose withdrawal of support threatens its survival.
The pro-business Junts per Catalunya party, led by exiled figurehead Carles Puigdemont, was decisive in allowing Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to serve another term.
It withdrew its support in October, accusing the government of breaking its pledges.
Sanchez acknowledged the break represented a “political crisis”.
He told public television he “accepted responsibility for those failures to follow through” but stressed his “desire to fulfil” the promises.
The cabinet approved reforms affecting local government spending and the digitalisation of company accounts.
Sanchez said Junts “had already proposed to us months ago”.
A key sticking point remains an amnesty law for those prosecuted in Catalonia’s failed 2017 secession bid.
Although MPs approved the law last year, it does not apply to Puigdemont because he faces embezzlement charges that fall outside its scope.
This prevents his return to Spain from exile in Belgium.
Sanchez said he hoped Puigdemont could “return soon” and remained open to meeting him in the future.
The crisis with Junts compounds difficulties from separate corruption investigations into Sanchez’s wife, brother and former Socialist heavyweights.
One suspect, former transport minister Jose Luis Abalos, implied Sanchez’s wife irregularly intervened in the bailout of airline Air Europa.
Sanchez has always defended his wife’s innocence.
He told RAC1 radio he would never accept “threats” or “blackmail” from individuals or the right-wing opposition, which demands his resignation and early elections.
