pedro sánchez

Pro-independence parties crucial for the initiative to succeed

From Belgium, Quim Torra says he is keen to hear Spanish opposition leader’s proposals for Catalonia ahead of vote of no confidence

PSOE to call new election to get Ciutadans’ support

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

PSOE warns direct rule could be used against new government, while Ciutadans calls for it to continue

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

Spanish president will meet socialist leader on Tuesday and head of unionist Cs party on Thursday

Committee in Congress to discuss Magna Carta aimed to offer an olive branch to Catalan pro-independence bloc

Spanish parties disagree on whether Madrid should go ahead with Article 155 if Puigdemont calls an early election

Madrid executive and Socialist party to call snap election in Catalonia in January 2018

Agreement reached between Spanish president Mariano Rajoy and leader of the opposition Pedro Sánchez one day after Carles Puigdemont’s speech in parliament

Supreme Court president says attitudes from pro-independence leaders’ “damage democracy” and are “unacceptable”

From Rajoy to Sánchez to Rivera, the leaders of Spain’s main political groups speak out against October 1 vote

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 PSC, the Catalan branch of the Spanish Socialist Party have insisted on their ‘no’ to reinstating current Spanish President, Mariano Rajoy. “We can’t betray our principles”, stated this Monday one of the candidates to lead PSC in the upcoming primary elections, Núria Parlon. In a clear move to differentiate themselves from the overall Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) position, which is to abstain in the upcoming investiture debate and allow the formation of a government in Spain, the PSC emphasised their “commitment to the citizens’ mandate” and their predisposition to offer “an alternative government to that of the Conservative People’s Party (PP)”. The Catalan Socialists expressed their position after the resignation of PSOE’s leader, Pedro Sánchez, who stepped down on Saturday after a week of turmoil within the Spanish Socialist Party.