The Irish Times view on Spanish government formation: give the deal a chance

Admirers of the caretaker Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, claim that the agreement his Socialist Party (PSOE) signed last Thursday with Together for Catalonia, a pro-independence party, is “historic”. How history will read it is another question. The deal is portrayed by opposed sectors of Spanish (and Catalan) society in viscerally clashing terms. For Sánchez’s supporters within Spain, and for a large majority of Catalans, it brings conflicting positions about Catalonia’s future back where they belong, into the political arena, and out of the courts, prisons and exile, where previous governments, led by the right-wing Partido Popular (PP), had driven them.

But the PP, the far-right Vox, and a significant sector of the PSOE view the deal as an illegal amnesty for convicted criminals, and a “betrayal of Spain” leading to national disintegration. The violent expression of this view on the streets, and within the highly politicised judiciary, is already testing Spanish democratic institutions.

Even for those who welcome the deal, it is unfortunate that Sánchez has only taken this path because he needs the votes of radical Catalan (and Basque) parties to form a new government. He would have more authority to engage so deeply with the independence movement had such engagement formed part of his election campaign.

However, the complex deal is far from the caricature of capitulation to Catalan demands portrayed by the Spanish nationalist right. It has the considerable virtue of persuading the major pro-independence forces, at least for now, to return to operating within constitutional limits. And these Catalans can argue that they were forced onto a newly radical route in 2010 by the PP’s dubious utilisation of the Constitutional Court. It eviscerated a new Catalan Statute of Autonomy, approved by the Catalan and Spanish parliaments, and by Catalan voters, in 2006.

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Even without the dangerous responses the Spanish right is now making, implementing last week’s agreement would be excruciatingly difficult. But it deserves a chance to succeed.