Spain’s Socialist acting prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has agreed a controversial amnesty deal with a Catalan separatist party, bringing him closer to four more years in office.
He was immediately condemned by conservative opponents for dragging Spain towards “humiliation”.
Although the conservative Popular Party won July elections, they were unable to form a majority.
The amnesty deal would give the Socialists the numbers they need.
However, right-wing protesters have taken to the streets in Madrid and other cities in recent days, angered by the prospect of a law granting amnesty to hundreds of Catalan politicians and activists “directly or indirectly” related to a failed bid to secede from Spain in 2017.
Popular Party (PP) figures have accused the acting prime minister of writing a “blank cheque for the independence movement”. Madrid Mayor, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, said the Socialists were “selling a nation with centuries of history” with an attack on Spain’s rule of law.
In an indication of the febrile atmosphere surrounding the deal, a former leader of the PP in Catalonia and founder of far-right Vox was shot in the head and wounded on a street in Madrid.
Alejo Vidal-Quadras, 78, had earlier condemned the “infamous pact”, warning that it would make Spain a “totalitarian tyranny”. His attacker was said to have fled the scene on a motorbike.
Mr Vidal-Quadras was said to be in a stable condition.
Before Thursday’s agreement, Pedro Sánchez had already sealed a deal with one pro-independence party. The Catalan Republican Left (ERC) is in power in Spain’s north-eastern region.
His negotiators then clinched an agreement with the more radical Together for Catalonia (jxcat). It is led by Carles Puigdemont, who led the breakaway independence vote but fled to Brussels to avoid being sent to jail.
ERC and the more radical jxcat hold seven seats each in the 350-seat parliament. —BBC
