As many Europeans clashed over protests related to the war in Gaza in recent days, Spaniards took the streets to contend with an entirely different issue. Hundreds of thousands came out in Madrid and other major cities to demonstrate against a deal struck between the Socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, and Catalan separatists. That agreement will allow Sánchez finally to form a new coalition government this week, ending a political crisis that has afflicted the country since the general election on 23 July.
But it is a politically incendiary settlement that leaves Sánchez exposed. The far-right Vox party leader, Santiago Abascal, in over-the-top, unjustified rhetoric, accused him of “a coup”, and the conservative People’s party (PP)’s Isabel Díaz Ayuso, president of the Madrid region, said the prime minister had “ushered in a dictatorship through the back door”.
