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Podemos and Catalan parties abandon Pedro Sánchez’s executive in debt limit vote in Congress

Pedro Sánchez expects to meet Catalan president Quim Torra at beginning of July

Miquel Iceta rules out Spanish constitution reform or referendum in this term

Former EU parliament president Josep Borrell is an outspoken critic of the independence movement

Pedro Sánchez appeals to pro-independence parties in his attempt to oust president Mariano Rajoy

PSOE to call new election to get Ciutadans’ support

Move comes after judge sentences PP former treasurer to more than 30 years in jail for corruption plot

PSOE party head says Catalan president represents the “opposite” of constitutional values

Mariano Rajoy and Pedro Sánchez agree to continue monitoring country’s finances

On a day that hundreds of thousands took to the streets of Barcelona in support of pro-independence officials, parties PP and PSOE condemned the movement

The two main Spanish parties are frontally opposed to the celebration of an independence referendum in Catalonia and their leaders will fight together against the Catalan government plans’ to hold one. In a phone conversation on Monday, the Spanish President and leader of the People’s Party (PP), Mariano Rajoy, and the re-elected leader of the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE), Pedro Sánchez, discussed their united front against a self-determination vote in Catalonia. “The PSOE will defend the legality and the Constitution,” confirmed the Spanish Vice President, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, in a press conference in Madrid, where she briefed journalists about the two leaders’ conversation. According to her, the Socialists are “against the illegal referendum being planned by the Catalan Government” and will block “any attempt” to “violate” the Spanish Constitution. Sáenz de Santamaría also insisted that a self-determination referendum is “unnegotiable” but again urged the Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, to present his plans in the Spanish Congress.

The Catalan Socialist Meritxell Batet will no longer be part of the PSOE Board in the Spanish Parliament. The measure was announced on Thursday by the spokesman of the PSOE interim leadership, Mario Jiménez, and came after theparty held a two-hour meeting to decide the measures against the 15 MPs, including the seven members of the PSC, that broke voting discipline and rejected Rajoy’s investiture. Batet’s post as Deputy Secretary General will remain unoccupied until negotiations between the Catalan and the Spanish socialist branches “come to an end”, Jiménez said. After the announcement, Batet stated that she “accepts and respects” the decision, despite not sharing it, and that she would have preferred for the issue not to have been tackled “in this way”.

The Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) and its partner in Catalonia (PSC) will create a committee made up of members from both parties to “tackle their relationship problems” and resolve the situation “as soon as possible”. According to PSC’s leader, Miquel Iceta, the committee will have to “evaluate and review if necessary” the relationship between the  parties, established in 1978. According to Javier Fernández, president of the interim managing committee which has led PSOE since last October, the fact that PSC broke the party line and refused to facilitate Mariano Rajoy’s investiture in October was “not serious” nor “democratic”. Indeed, many members of PSOE want PSC out of the Federal Committee and for them not to be able to participate in the Spanish Parliament. The tension between PSOE and PSC reached its height on the 29^th of October during the Spanish investiture debate, when 15 Socialist MPs said ‘no’ to Mariano Rajoy’s investiture, among whom were the seven MPs of the PSC. 

Tensions between the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) and the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC) over the Spanish investiture will not break their relationship, according to both parties. Seven Catalan Socialist MPs voted last Saturday against Rajoy’s reelection, breaking ranks with the main Spanish party, which abstained, and prompting sanctions against them. However, the PSOE interim leadership expressed on Wednesday its commitment to a “balanced and symmetrical” relation with the Catalan Socialists. The PSC leader, Àngel Ros, stated in similar terms that his party does not plan to change its relationship with the PSOE despite the disciplinary proceedings against the MPs that decided not to abstain. The Catalan Socialist MPs have always argued that they voted ‘no’ to Rajoy “according to their conscience”.