British newspaper The Guardian has said that the first challenge the new Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, will face is the "Catalan independence crisis". "Separatist leaders who backed Pedro Sánchez’s bid for PM will now want something in return," their correspondent writes.
According to the newspaper, Sánchez will now have to tackle what had already been "one of the defining issues" of Rajoy's premiership.Eight months ago, they write, "Carles Puigdemont, thrust Spain into its worst political crisis since its return to democracy" with the independence referendum and the unilateral declaration of independence.
The paper reports that, in last December's Catalan election, pro-independence parties won a majority of the seats, but that "the biggest single winner was the regional branch of the centre-right Ciudadanos party, which has taken an aggressively unionist approach to the crisis". They also note the "damage done by the images of police charging Catalan voters in the referendum in October".
The Guardian mentions that the application of article 155 of the Constitution should end when the new Catalan government is sworn in this Saturday, but also that the new president, Quim Torra, has promised to continue to work to create a Catalan republic. They conclude that Sánchez will have to "tread carefully" as he takes on his "unenviable task".
