Iberia in political disarray
Two of the EU Left's most prominent prime ministers are engulfed in scandal this week in crises that have a very European dimension.
Greetings from Andalucia, where the Party of European Socialists, the EU grouping of centre-left parties, has gathered here in Malaga for their annual congress. The timing couldn’t be worse for them. Last night saw some incredible scenes as German Chancllor Olaf Scholz and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez were reportedly trapped in a hotel by nationalist protestors outside, and the Germans were desperately looking for a way to extract Scholz from the situation. On Thursday protests erupted across Spain after Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez went ahead with his deal granting amnesty to the organisers of the illegal 2017 Catalan independence referendum in exchange for their support to keep him in power. It came two days after the Socialist Prime Minister of Portugal, Antonio Costa, suddenly resigned amid a shocking corruption probe into his inner circle. As Sanchez addresses Europe’s socialists gathered here in Spain later today, it is clear that both of these scandals are taking on European dimensions.
What has been noticeable about the protests in the streets of Spain over the past two days has been how many people are waving EU flags and holding signs asking European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to intervene and stop the amnesty deal. Centre-right opposition leader Alberto Feijoo, who came first in July’s Spanish election but was unable to form a government because his far-right potential coalition partners didn’t get enough seats, chose to issue his statement denouncing the deal in front of an EU flag. His Peoples Party has called for mass protests across Spain tomorrow, with EU flags. Though the most violent protests seen over the past days have been from far-right nationalists who are certainly not carrying EU flags, what is also evident is that the peaceful protesters from the center-right are trying to Europeanize this issue. And that may have something to do with who the EU president is.