Spain’s Pedro Sánchez reelected prime minister despite controversy over amnesty for separatists

By CIARÁN GILES and JOSEPH WILSON
Associated Press

MADRID (AP) — Spain’s acting Socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has been chosen by a majority of legislators to form a new leftist coalition government in a parliamentary vote. Sánchez was backed by 179 lawmakers in the 350-seat lower house of parliament. Only right-wing opposition deputies voted against him. The vote came after nearly two days of debate among party leaders that centered almost entirely on a highly controversial amnesty deal for Catalonia’s separatists that Sánchez agreed to in return for vital support to get elected prime minister again.