Spain PM gets budget backing in test of separatist strength


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MADRID (AP) — The Spanish parliament narrowly passed a new national budget Wednesday, giving the government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy some breathing space as it combats the continuing secession drive in Catalonia.

Basque nationalist lawmakers made a last-minute U-turn on an earlier promise not to support the ruling Popular Party's public spending plan as long as Rajoy's government remained in control in Catalonia.

The five votes of the Basque PNV party's representatives in the national parliament were needed to avert a defeat that would have exposed the weakness of Rajoy's minority administration, potentially resulting in a confidence vote or demands for an early election.

The 2018 budget passed in the 350-seat parliament with 176 votes supplied by PNV, business-friendly Ciudadanos (Citizens) and individual lawmakers from Asturias, Navarra and Canarias provinces. The opposition Socialists, the anti-establishment Podemos party and other smaller regional parties voted against the budget.

It will take effect in June after passage by the Senate, where Rajoy's party holds a comfortable majority.

In exchange for supporting the budget, PNV secured new investments and other benefits for the Basque region of Spain, where the party leads the regional governing coalition and has historically tried to acquire greater self-governance.

It also recently forced Rajoy's government to increase pensions, a priority issue for elderly voters that sent thousands of people into the streets to protest. The demonstrations drew the biggest crowds in the Basque city of Bilbao.

PNV refused until Wednesday to support central authorities as long as Madrid continued managing the day-to-day affairs of Catalonia. At the end of October, Rajoy removed the Catalan government from office and assumed control of the region over attempts by separatists to break away from Spain. The Basque region shares Catalonia's devotion to the cause of self-determination.

In a statement posted on the party's website, PNV said its decision to back the budget bill was an "act of responsibility" because it wanted to "avoid the abyss" of a national political crisis.

Rajoy has promised to end the controls once Catalonia has a new functioning government in place. However, his administration has refused to publish and thus make official the appointments of four politicians who are under indictment over last year's secession push to the new regional cabinet of Catalan President Quim Torra.

Two of the ministers Torra proposed are in jail and two are in Belgium fighting extradition to Spain.

The cabinet was scheduled to be sworn in on Wednesday, but Torra's party said it had been forced to delay the ceremony. The party announced it was taking legal action against Rajoy's government for refusing to publish the ministers' appointments.

"The Catalan government must be chosen by the president, Quim Torra, not by Mariano Rajoy," Eduard Pujol, a pro-independence lawmaker in Catalonia, said.

Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria countered that it was up to Torra to return Catalonia to normalcy by choosing members of his team who are not jailed or living abroad.

Together with corruption cases involving members of Rajoy's Popular Party and the emergency of the Citizens party as an increasingly popular political opposition, the entrenched conflict with Catalan separatists has been among the prime minister's greatest challenges in the past year.

Rajoy's supporters credit the 63-year-old conservative politician with steering Spain out of its worst economic crisis in decades. His opponents claim that inequality is on the rise because there are too few good jobs and because austerity measures have destroyed the social welfare safety net.

Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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