By the narrowest of margins (167 votes to 165 with 18 abstentions), the 350-seat Spanish Congress invested a coalition government of the social-democratic Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) and the more radical Unidas Podemos (UP) on January 7.
No Spanish prime minister has ever been elected by so low and so close a vote: eight of the parliament鈥檚 eighteen parties voted in favour, eight against and two abstained.
On November 12, largely in reaction to the rise of the right-wing Vox, Socialist Workers' Party leader Pedro S谩nchez and Unidas Podemos' Pablo Iglesias stitched up a pre-agreement for government in less than 48 hours, writes Dick Nichols.
The final act in a week of protest in Catalonia, against the vindictive jail terms imposed on nine Catalan leaders by the Spanish Supreme Court on October 14, was a general strike and vast demonstration in the capital, Barcelona.
Infuriated by the verdict, frustrated with the strategy of the established independence movement (seen as 鈥済etting nowhere鈥), and most of all, outraged by police violence, young Catalans, who had never been on a barricade in their lives, decided that 鈥渄irect action鈥 was the only solution, writes Dick Nichols.
After the Spanish Supreme Court sentenced nine political and social Catalan leaders on October 12 to a total of 99.5 years jail for organising the October 1, 2017 independence referendum, the struggle for the country鈥檚 right to self-determination entered a new phase.
The gap between the 75%鈥80% of Catalans who uphold their country鈥檚 right to self-determination, and the Spanish elites and parts of Spanish society that do not want to know anything about it, was already very wide before October 14.
But on that day, when the Spanish Supreme Court condemned nine Catalan political and social movement leaders to a total of 99.5 years jail, it most likely became unbridgeable, writes Dick Nichols from Barcelona.
Spain鈥檚 acting Prime Minister Pedro S谩nchez, leader of the Spanish Socialist Workers鈥 Party (PSOE) and winner of the April 28 general election, informed King Philip on September 17 that he lacked the support to form a government. As a result, another general election will be held on November 10.
Occupying the Pla莽a d鈥橢spanya and surrounding streets on September 11, 600,000 people came out in Barcelona to celebrate Catalan National Day (the Diada).
The vast crowd demanded the acquittal of jailed Catalan social movement and political leaders, presently awaiting a Spanish Supreme Court verdict on charges of rebellion, sedition and embezzlement.
So intense is Unidas Podemos鈥 desire to sit around the cabinet table with Spain's social democratic government that leader Pablo Iglesias managed to convince Together We Can, the Catalan coalition in which UP participates, to abandon its main policy 鈥 a negotiated referendum as condition for supporting a PSOE-led administration, writes Dick Nichols.
In the May 26 European elections, Spanish social democratic party PSOE made gains, largely at the expense of the left wing Podemos. The PSOE delegation is now the largest S&D presence in the European parliament and will be the backbone of ongoing attempts to break the back of the Catalan sovereignty movement, writes Dick Nichols.
The electoral defeat of the right in Spain on April 28 is a cause for celebration for all progressive people, writes Dick Nichols.
Spain鈥檚 April 28 general election will be 鈥渆xistential鈥 for the Spanish state, according to outgoing Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) foreign minister Josep Borrell 鈥 the scourge of the Catalan sovereignty movement. It will be a 鈥渞eferendum on the secessionist menace鈥, according to People鈥檚 Party (PP) opposition leader Pablo Casado.
Despite being prime minister in a minority government, Pedro S谩nchez said that his government would run its full term. Why did he change his mind and call early elections?