Spain’s acting prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has defended the controversial Catalan amnesty law that is set to deliver his socialist party a second term, saying the act of clemency towards hundreds of people involved in the push for regional independence is needed to promote “dialogue, understanding and forgiveness”.
Although Sánchez’s Spanish Socialist Workers’ party (PSOE) was narrowly beaten by the conservative People’s party (PP) in July’s inconclusive snap general election, it has managed to succeed where the PP and its allies in the far-right Vox party failed by cobbling together enough parliamentary support to form a government.
