• Tweeter

  • republish

The head of the Spanish government Pedro Sánchez at the Palrment of Madrid, February 12, 2019. REUTERS / Juan Medina

The trial, already very tense in its debut Tuesday, February 12, 2019, is caught up in parliamentary news. Less than a kilometer from the Supreme Court, in the Chamber of Deputies, the annual budget proposed by the head of the Socialist Government Pedro Sánchez is discussed on Wednesday 13 February. A budget that must imperatively buckle to stay in power.

With our correspondent in Madrid, François Musseau

In all likelihood, the Catalan separatists, who helped to elect Pedro Sánchez to the presidency of the government, do not go this time to support the budget of the head of the socialist government.

However, if it is impossible to complete its annual budget, Pedro Sánchez will no longer be able to remain in power, and will be obliged to call legislative elections. This is the most predictable scenario.

Elections could be held in May or April. The opposition on the right pushes in this direction and blames Pedro Sánchez virulently for being at one time the parliamentary ally of the " Catalan putschists who seek to break Spain ".

The position of the socialist leader is now untenable: to obtain the support of the separatists, he must agree to negotiate with them on self-determination, a principle unthinkable for him and his troops, and whose only hypothesis screams the right national.

Unless accident, Catalan separatists will not yield. The legislature of Pedro Sánchez is therefore at an impasse. A political situation that will only accentuate the tensions in the process between the Catalan secessionists and the Spanish parties.

► A reread: Concerns over the content of the trial of the Catalan leaders in Madrid