Will Spain Survive Sánchez’s Controversial Deal?

Seeking to hold onto power, the country’s prime minister is willing to grant amnesty to regional separatists accused of violating the law and the nation’s Constitution.

In Alejandro Amenábar’s 2019 film on the Spanish Civil War, Mientras dure la guerra (“While at War”), a melancholic Francisco Franco ruminates that “España es asi; siempre a la gresca” (“Spain is like that; always a brawl”). Given the current state of the country’s politics and intense protests numbering in the hundreds of thousands that have rocked it for the better part of the past few weeks, it appears the observation still holds almost a century later.