ALBAWABA - AFP reported that Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has struck a historic deal with separatists in Catalonia a deal that will enable him to remain in power but that has raised tensions and sparked protests in the country.
Following a failed secession attempt in 2017, Sanchez accepted the demands of the Catalans to offer amnesty to all those who took part in the 2017 turn of events.
In response, conservative opposition parties and members of Spain's judiciary have stepped up criticism, with some accusing Sanchez of corruption and abandoning the rule of law.
An insider source assured AFP that earlier today an agreement had been made within the negotiations between the Socialists and the Catalan parties and that it would be presented in Brussels later in the day.
Leader of the Catalan separatist movement Carles Puigdemont currently is taking refuge in Brussels. He fled Spain for Belgium after the unsuccessful attempt at secession in order to avoid being prosecuted.
Protests against Catalonia deal
The suggested deal with the Catalan separatists sparked a wave of major protests across Spain. Thousands were seen gathered on Tuesday, carrying banners with the words "No to amnesty" and "Spain does not pay traitors".
Earlier this week, thousands of protestors gathered outside the headquarters of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) in Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia.
Later on, the leader of the opposition conservative Popular Party (PP), Alberto Nunez Feijoo, declared at a conference on Saturday that "exchanging votes for impunity is corruption" and declared the following day at a rally in Valencia: "We will defend Spain".
With the backing of separatists, Sanchez was voted to office just one month after the attempt at secession. His top goal now is to ease Catalan tensions.
He released the nine separatists who had been imprisoned in 2021, and the following year his government changed the Spanish penal code to eliminate the sedition charge under which they had been found guilty.
