Catalan Separatists Want Amnesty as Price for Spain’s Premier

  • Puigdemont makes demands to back candidates vying for premier
  • Conditions include focus on pro-independence supporters

 Carles Puigdemont

Photographer: Angel Garcia/Bloomberg
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Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont, who is poised to be king-maker for Spain’s new prime minister, demanded sweeping amnesty for pro-independence supporters as part of the price for his backing.

After an inconclusive general election in July, Puigdemont’s small Junts party came out of near national irrelevance to hold the keys to finding a new administration for the euro area’s fourth largest economy. Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, now a caretaker, and Alberto Nunez Feijoo of the People’s Party are each just a handful of votes short of the majority needed to take the premiership.