Pedro Sánchez is now prime minister of Spain. They can all rub their eyes, starting with former PM Mariano Rajoy and his substitute, but it is true. It is not fake news. The Spanish Socialist (PSOE) party leader has achieved something unheard of: without a party supporting him, without the backing of big business and with the entire Spanish written press against him - barring the odd exception - he has made the move from his party headquarters to the prime minister's residence in just a week. That is the time that went by from the presentation of the motion of no confidence in Mariano Rajoy to the vote on the motion in Spain's congress. I remember only one political about-face that was more sudden and that was due to the huge tragedy of the Madrid terrorist attacks of 2004 and the subsequent elections that José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero won for the PSOE. On this unforeseen situation that has rearranged the Spanish political chessboard, four reflections.
First: the fact that the Catalan pro-independence parties have helped expel the government of Mariano Rajoy and the Popular Party (PP) will not imply support for Pedro Sánchez and the PSOE. There is a great difference here from the situation of the deputies of Podemos, who will have to help the new government. This should not be the role of the Catalan parties JxCat and ERC, nor will it be. The motto for these two parties in Madrid has to be Trust no-one here. The Basque Nationalist Party, by changing the sign of its earlier pro-Rajoy vote in a matter of days, has shown the path to follow. Time to stop feeling complexed.
Second: the stage of thinking about governing Spain is for all intents and purposes already in the past. There are two levels of agreements to be reached: the basic one, to restore the level of Catalan autonomy that has been lost, the control of Catalonia's finances, and other possible smaller issues; and the full agreement, that is, the one including the entire package of matters relating to the 1st October referendum: those imprisoned, those exiled and hypothetically, a new referendum, in this case, with the agreement of the Spanish state. The first, basic agreement has to be assumed as automatic, and if there are no gestures towards the second, the place of the Catalan independence parties can only be in opposition.
Third: a meeting between the new Spanish prime minister and the Catalan president has to be held urgently in Madrid. Sánchez has to repair the damage and the lies he frivolously propagated about Quim Torra. This is a matter of dignity. As historic Catalan president Josep Tarradellas once said, we Catalans lose our way in Madrid when we allow them to give us a nice brushing down, something they do with great cordiality. The sweet-toothed politics that some enjoy so much does not yield any result.
Fourth: an investigation into the action in Catalonia of the so-called "cesspits of the state" - illegal, covert actions by the Spanish authorities - during these years would be democratically proper. Any indicator that such actions have not been terminated would be an insurmountable barrier to agreement. This, along with the complete restitution of the Mossos d'Esquadra as the Catalan police force with complete competencies, responsibility solely to the Catalan government and immediate access to all the national and international information channels that they had before Madrid's abrupt intervention in Catalonia through article 155 of the constitution.
For the investiture of the new Spanish prime minister, there is a Catalan bill, definitely.