Dimitris Kouimtsidis
PEDRO Sanchez has reportedly secured enough support for a sixth and final extension to the state of emergency.
This extension will go up until June 21, when the state of emergency is due to end.
According to El Pais sources, the Government has secured a deal with the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) and the Catalan Republican Left (ERC), meaning that there is now enough of a majority to pass the extension.
Those same sources claim that the Basques are due to vote in favour of the extension, whereas the Catalans are due to abstain.
This abstention still supports Sanchez’s aim, as they had previously voted against the extension on the last two occasions.
The ERC had voted against those extensions due to their belief that the Government had ignored its proposals during negotiations, which included restoring full powers over healthcare to the regional governments, among other demands.
In exchange for their support on the upcoming vote this week, the nationalist parties secured commitment from the government that all of Spain’s regions will recover the majority of the powers that were recentralized under the state of alarm, when they enter Phase 3.
The only power that the PSOE led coalition will still have over regions is that covering freedom of movement.
In addition, the deal with the ERC responds to the party’s requests for the regions to be involved in the EU’s economic reactivation fund.
On the other hand however, the deal did not include an agreement on the reactivation of talks between the central Government in Madrid and the Catalan nationalists on the future of the region.
