Spaniards Aren’t Afraid To Protest, So Why Are American Conservatives?
Spaniards know what communist control looks like.Spaniards know what communist control looks like.Spain's socialist regime strikes deal with secessionists to stay in power, sparking unrest
Spain has been roiled in recent days by the leftist regime's controversial scheme to remain in power. Thousands of conservatives, federalists, and other patriots took to the streets of Madrid Thursday to protest Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's socialist-secessionist pact, which lawmakers and judicial groups have indicated violates not only Spanish law but the separation of powers.
What's the background?
The 2023 Spanish general election in July saw the conservative People's Party make massive gains in the Spanish parliament, leading all other parties — of which there are many — with over 33% of the popular vote. It also grabbed far more seats than the ruling party, the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE). Despite these gains, the People's Party still did not net enough seats in the Congress of Deputies to form a government, even with the support of other right-of-center parties such as the Vox Party.
In the months since, the country has been in a form of parliamentary limbo, facing the prospect of a snap election should interparty negotiations prove fruitless.
In a scramble to secure another term, Sánchez, leader of the PSOE, struck a deal with Catalan separatists. To ensure that conservatives couldn't form a government and restore order, Sánchez promised Together for Catalonia, also known as Junts, that those who took part in the failed and violent secessionist attempt in 2017 would be granted amnesty — meaning fugitive Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont and others who sought Spain's breakup would get a free pass. In exchange, Junts need only pledge its support for Sánchez's Spanish Socialist Workers Party.
A September poll showed that 70% of Spaniards opposed amnesty for the secessionists. Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators have taken part in anti-amnesty protests in the weeks since.
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The Guardian reported that approximately 7,000 people gathered outside the PSOE headquarters in Madrid earlier this week to protest the deal. Some protesters called Sánchez a "criminal" and a "dictator."
Sánchez's socialist-secession union
Junts, the National Basque Party, and the Canarian Coalition confirmed Thursday that they'd back the leftist ruling party, reported Reuters.
This will be enough to provide Sánchez with a majority in the Spanish parliament's 350-member Congress of Deputies.
"We have managed to secure a majority that will make possible the investiture of Pedro Sanchez," said Felix Bolanos, acting minister for parliamentary relations.
Concerning the deal with the separatist faction, Bolanos said, "We have very far apart and different positions, but this deal means we are doing our best to understand each other. Spain and Catalonia deserve that."
Socialist officials have attempted to spin the desperate ploy to stay in power as an effort to address historical grievances, reported the New York Times.
Santos Cerdán, a negotiator with the PSOE, said the deal was "a historic opportunity to resolve a conflict that could — and should — only be resolved politically."
"Our aim is to open the way for a legislature that will allow us to progress and build an open and modern society and a better country," added Cerdán.
Reuters reported that judges and conservative lawmakers have indicated that Sánchez's promise of amnesty violates not only Spanish law but the separation of powers.
In addition to possibly flouting Spanish law, the PSOE will now be at the mercy of the Junts, which will continue to squeeze the socialists for concessions in exchange for its support.
Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of the conservative People's Party, responded to the deal, writing, "We are facing a challenge to our democracy that requires the reaction of Spanish democrats, without distinction of ideology. We will use all constitutional resources to counteract those that want to weaken it. Spanish democracy will prevail."
"Sánchez has surrendered to the demands of the separatists. They want the resignation of the Spanish people, but they are not going to have it because Spain does not surrender," said Feijóo.
Patriot protests
Spain's two leading right-wing parties have called for "civil resistance" but stressed the need for peaceful demonstrations, reported the Times (U.K.).
Feijóo, likely mindful of the events of 1936, when socialist-fostered instability drove the nation to civil war, said, "The response to this attack on the foundations of our democracy must start from more democracy and must therefore be firm, but calm. I appeal to responsibility and that any mobilization be peaceful. Nothing and no one should break our coexistence.
The confirmation of the amnesty agreement sparked protests across the country.
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Battle in Madrid. Spanish patriots want Pedro Sanchez arrested.\n\n#Spain #Madrid #Spanish #Protesters #Socialist #Riot #Protest #Nationalist— (@)
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While the right-wing protests appear to have been largely peaceful, leftists have not reciprocated.
On Thursday, Alejo Vidal-Quadras, one of the founders of the Vox Party and former People's Party of Catalonia leader, was shot in the head in broad daylight. Vidal-Quadras has been a vocal critic of the amnesty agreement, having written Thursday on X, "The infamous pact between Sánchez and Puigdemont that crushes the rule of law in Spain and ends the separation of powers has already been agreed. Our Nation will thus cease to be a liberal democracy and become a totalitarian tyranny. We Spaniards will not allow it."
He is reportedly in stable condition.
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Spain's prime minister asks EU to debate considering COVID-19 an endemic virus like the flu and end the pandemic
The prime minister of Spain has joined a growing chorus of European leaders calling for COVID-19 to be treated as an endemic virus like the flu, rather than a pandemic virus necessitating enormous disruptions in people's lives.
In a radio interview with Spain's Cadena SER on Monday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said it is time to re-evaluate COVID. He called on the European Union to debate the possibility of treating the virus as an endemic illness, according to CNBC.
“The situation is not what we faced a year ago,” Sanchez said, explaining that it is safe for Spanish children to return to school after the holidays.
“I think we have to evaluate the evolution of COVID to an endemic illness, from the pandemic we have faced up until now,” he added. The Spanish leader said European nations should debate a gradual reappraisal of the pandemic "at the technical level and at the level of health professionals, but also at the European level."
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson made similar remarks last year, when he said the British public eventually will have to "learn to live with the virus." Although the Omicron variant has caused a "tidal wave" of new cases, according to Johnson, the U.K. government has not yet enacted new coronavirus restrictions. In fact, the U.K. has reduced the period of required isolation for individuals who test positive for COVID from seven days to five, CNBC reported.
U.K. Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi told the BBC on Sunday that the country was on the road "from pandemic to endemic" as disruptive coronavirus restrictions are eased.
Now that Omicron cases appear to be falling in the U.K., experts say the country could be one of the first to declare the pandemic over.
A pandemic virus is said to become endemic when viral infections are commonly found in the population, usually in seasonal intervals. Over time, as most people develop natural immunity to the disease or get vaccinated against it, the virus will affect only relatively small segments of the population, rather than hitting everyone hard at once.
While Sanchez and a handful of other European leaders argue that COVID-19 is beginning to look like an endemic disease, health experts say it is too early to consider COVID endemic. The World Health Organization forecast Tuesday that in the next six to eight weeks, more than half the people in Europe and Central Asia could be infected with the Omicron variant, which is highly contagious though appears to cause less severe disease.
“In terms of endemicity, we’re still a way off, and I know there’s a lot of discussion around that right now,” Dr. Catherine Smallwood, a senior emergency officer at the WHO Europe, said at a press conference Tuesday.
Her comments come as European nations reported record numbers of COVID infections caused by the Omicron variant. In recent days, France has reported more than 300,000 new daily cases, and Germany reported 80,430 new infections on Wednesday, a record high, according to Reuters.
“Endemicity assumes that there’s stable circulation of the virus, at predictable levels and potentially known and predictable waves of epidemic transmission,” Smallwood said.
“But what we’re seeing at the moment coming into 2022 is nowhere near that, we still have a huge amount of uncertainty, we still have a virus that’s evolving quite quickly and posing new challenges so we’re certainly not at the point of being able to call it endemic. It might become endemic in due course but pinning that down to 2022 is a bit difficult at this stage.”
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