Sanchez Set Up To Remain PM As PSOE & Junts Reach Agreement

Multiple outlets reporting that acting PM Pedro Sanchez's centre-left Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) has reached an agreement with the hard-line Catalan separatist Together for Catalonia (Junts) that will see Sanchez given the requisite support to win an investiture vote in parliament. In exchange for this, the gov't will agree to an amnesty deal for those prosecuted under sedition laws in relation to the illegal Catalan independence referendum in 2017.

• Sanchez needs the support - not just abstention - of almost all leftist and regionalist parties in order to secure a majority in an investiture vote.
• While the confirmation of a Sanchez-led administration may indicate stability in the short term, there remain risks to Spain's political landscape over the longer term.
• The nascent agreement between the PSOE and pro-independence parties have inflamed anger among a sizeable portion of the Spanish electorate. For the second straight night the PSOE's head office in Madrid was the site of violent protests, with an estimated 7k in attendance.
• The conservative-leaning General Council of the Judiciary, which appoints senior judges, has also voiced its concerns in a statement. The Council "expresses with this statement its intense concern and desolation at the degradation, if not abolition, of the rule of law in Spain...,"
• The European Commission has also raised its concern at the amnesty agreement. Politico reports that Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders has written to Spanish ministers asking for clarification of the deal in relation to rule-of-law issues and alleged links between pro-independence figures and the Kremlin.