A leading question for PSOE card-carriers

PEDRO SANCHEZ finally took the plunge and pronounced the word “amnesty” on October 28.

“In the name of Spain and in the interests of Spain, in defence of co-existence between Spaniards, I today defend amnesty in Cataluña for the events of the past decade,” Sanchez declared to members of the PSOE’S federal committee.

“We must make a virtue of necessity.  It is the only possible route towards a government and avoiding another election,” the incumbent president said.

His speech received a standing ovation from practically all of the 300 people present, although Emiliano Garcia-Page, Castilla-La Mancha’s regional president who opposes the amnesty, remained seated, as did the members of the Castilla-La Mancha delegation.

Sanchez has now thrown the ball into the court of paid-up PSOE members who must answer what his opponents describe as a leading question.

“Do you support the agreement to form a government with Sumar and obtain the support of other political groups to reach the necessary majority?” they will be asked.

The question does not mention – but nevertheless implies – the amnesty which is the price that Cataluña’s pro-independence parties are demanding for their investiture votes that will assure another presidential term for Pedro Sanchez.

Since the paid-up, card-carrying party members are diehard PSOE supporters, Sanchez knows that few, if any, are going to say no.

Insiders close to Sanchez have in the past said that he would not refer in public to the proposed amnesty until negotiations with the Catalan parties Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya and Junts per Catalunya were “very advanced.”  His readiness to use the word on October 28 suggests that an agreement is approaching.

Meanwhile, Partido Popular leader Alberto Nuñez Feijoo whose own investiture bid failed in last September, said that Sanchez’s willingness to grant an amnesty was not a call for co-existence.  “It’s convenience,” Feijoo declared on X (formerly Twitter).

“If he wants an amnesty, the decision should be put before all Spaniards, not merely the applauding people that he himself has appointed.”