The Spanish government's decision to grant amnesty to Catalan secessionists will keep it in power and ensure policy continuity, but this will come at the cost of heightened social unrest, legal challenges from the opposition, and a renewed push for Catalan independence that will increase political uncertainty. On Nov. 9, Spain's acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's Socialist Party (PSOE) reached a deal with the Catalan pro-independence Junts party according to which Junts will support Sanchez in a vote of investiture in Parliament on Nov. 16. In exchange, the new Spanish government will pass an amnesty law for the Catalan political and institutional leaders who were involved in the region's independence process between 2012 and 2023, which included the organization of an illegal independence referendum in 2017. The agreement between PSOE and Junts came after several days of street protests at PSOE's headquarters in Madrid against the deal and ahead of...
