The political news in Spain, with the pacts for the investiture of Pedro Sánchez, and in particular the amnesty law of the process, has been scrutinized with different attention by neighboring countries, and with less interest from the other side of the Atlantic. It is logical. In the United States they have other priorities. For European neighbors, however, the attention is more than justified. Spain is the fourth economy in the euro, which also holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU. In France and Germany, the press has generally been critical of the price that Sánchez pays to be president, while in Italy the main newspaper highlights his ability to revalidate the position, and in the United Kingdom the reactions to the investiture pact have been more or less favorable depending on the editorial line.
French analysts have been very severe with the situation in Spain. The same day that Sánchez achieved the investiture, Le Monde published an opinion article, signed by former Prime Minister Manuel Valls and the Hispanicist Benoît Pellistrandi, in which they denounced that the agreement between the PSOE and the independentists “is a surrender without conditions ” and “an intellectual and moral disqualification of Spanish democracy.” Also Le Monde, in its editorial on Saturday, wrote that Sánchez can pay “an exorbitant price” to stay in power, that the pact is “a shameless rewriting of history”, reinforces the extreme right and divides citizens, in addition to granting “disproportionate influence” to the independentists.
A commentator on the LCI television network – dedicated almost exclusively to international information, 24 hours a day –, Abnousse Shalmani, of Iranian origin, presented an extensive report in which she described what is happening in the country as “delirious” several times. Spain. “It's a capitulation, a delirium,” she said. She considered it incongruous that a left-wing party that fights the extreme right would ally itself with “right-wing ultranationalists”, alluding to Junts, and called Puigdemont a “sinister character”. She also used an insulting tone, disguised with humor, by the veteran journalist from the Europe 1 radio network Vincent Hervouet, who highlighted Sánchez's abrupt changes in position and repeatedly called him a “scoundrel”, as it were, in Spanish. / Eusebio Val
In official terms and common membership in European social democracy, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz congratulated Pedro Sánchez on the same day of the investiture with a message in Spanish on the social network X (former Twitter): “Congratulations, @sanchezcastejon! It's good that we can continue working side by side. Because we see many challenges in the world from a very similar perspective. “I will be happy to continue the close cooperation between Germany and Spain, as well as in Europe.”
The Spanish political situation has been followed with interest in the press, radio and television, although always behind the conflict in the Middle East. The Tagesschau, news from the first public television channel ARD, pointed out that “the Spanish Parliament has re-elected the acting President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, as head of Government”, but stressed that “the majority achieved by the socialists is linked to an amnesty for the Catalan separatists, who had failed in their illegal referendum.”
Almost all the press highlights this link in a critical way. To give an example, Die Zeit headlined: “The socialist Pedro Sánchez remains president of the Spanish Government. “His re-election is tied to an amnesty for Catalan separatists.” The Süddeutsche Zeitung preludes a bad future: “Pedro Sánchez, re-elected as head of the Government. The socialist came second in the general election, but thanks to seven smaller parties he remains prime minister. However, the flaws of this coalition are already becoming evident.”
The German media also echoes the street demonstrations against the amnesty; Those called last Sunday by the PP have been described as “massive.” / María-Paz López
In Italy, the Spanish investiture has been followed with great interest, both in the press and in the political spheres. In the end, the July 23 elections were the first European disappointment for the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, who hoped that the results in both Spain and Poland would mark the course of the ultra-conservative wave that she hopes to lead on the path to the next community elections. Neither her allies from Vox – whom she helped in the electoral campaign – nor Law and Justice in Poland have given her the expected satisfaction.
Meloni did not congratulate the socialist president on Thursday, and on Friday he received his friend and ally Santiago Abascal in Rome. His deputy prime minister and foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, spoke about the Spanish situation in the Italian Chamber of Deputies. After ensuring that the Italian Government “respects the institutional and political dynamics underway in Spain,” he noted that “the delicate point” is that the Catalan parties “have linked their support to divisive and controversial concessions from the point of view of the rule of law.” ”.
On Friday, La Repubblica's report spoke of a “new masterpiece of political strategy” by Pedro Sánchez and highlighted the violent demonstrations by “far-right activists” in front of Ferraz. The Corriere della Sera, for its part, called him the “Machiavelli of the 21st century who has done it again.” / Anna Buj
The reaction in Great Britain to the inauguration of Pedro Sánchez has responded to well-defined ideological lines, with the center left (Labor Party and media such as The Guardian, The Independent and The Daily Mirror) satisfied and the right (Conservative Party and the newspapers The Daily Telegraph, The Daily Mail, The Sun...) against.
The Guardian, after admitting that Sánchez's new mandate "will be turbulent" and that "he has paid a high price to remain in power", points out that "this is good news for Spain and for Europe" both in that it maintains at bay the advance of the extreme right, contrary to what happens in other countries on the continent. The newspaper, close to Labour, compares the political resurrection of Carles Puigdemont with that of Lázaro and considers that he is going to be a key figure in the legislature.
The other side of the coin are the right-wing media, which echo the complaints of the Popular Party and Vox about the “betrayal of Spain” and the legitimacy of the Government, and have given extensive coverage to the altercations outside the headquarters of Ferraz. The Telegraph even suggests that “the controversial pact with the Catalan separatists could lead, according to its critics, to a revolt in the style of that of January 6 (when Trumpist fanatics stormed the Capitol).
In an intermediate position, the Financial Times predicts instability and that it may be a short term. / Rafael Ramos
The world is in turmoil between wars and the formation of the government in Spain has happened discreetly in the United States. Nothing to do with the attention paid to the battles in Barcelona in October 2017, with very attractive images for the media. Ferraz's protests weigh little in the face of the destruction in the Middle East. Not even well-known New Yorkers ask questions, except for the most academic ones, always attentive to international politics. But there is this idea that the “separatists” of that time are the ones who have come to the rescue of those they detested, and vice versa. There are experts who consider that President Pedro Sánchez's initiative gives new life to the independence movement, at the same time that, in parallel, it has dusted off Spanish nationalism, something taboo since the fall of Francoism. But, if it is due to covers and minutes of television, the alarm about what is happening is little. How can there be when a party supports a candidate even though they believe he incited an insurrection. A good example is The Wall Street Journal. Sánchez's re-election had a brief in its paper edition. One page further was an article by José María Aznar that, in its Spanish version, seems to have been read by retired Spanish soldiers before his coup furor. / Francesc Peirón
