A coalition government that would include former terrorist kidnappers and fugitive separatists could be key to Spain's socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez remaining in power following elections Sunday that observers labeled as complicated, confusing, and uncertain.
Sanchez's Socialist Party and the extreme left Sumar Party won a combined 153 seats in the 350-seat Chamber of Deputies and thus placed below the majority required to rule.
Nevertheless, Sanchez could remain in power if he forged a coalition with the ERC (Republican Left of Catalonia, with seven seats), Junts per Catalunya (Together for Catalonia, with six seats), and the Basque Nationalist Party (five seats), along with EH Bildu (six seats), which favors independence for Spain's Basque Country.
Calling the shots at Junts is Carles Puigdemont, renegade former head of government in the state of Catalonia, who promoted an internationally-watched referendum to split his state from Spain.
The referendum passed resoundingly — reportedly with help from Vladimir Putin's Russia — and was promptly declared illegal, leading Puigdemont to flee into exile in Belgium.
Another fearsome figure, onetime terrorist Arnaldo Otegi, is leader of EH Bildu and someone who has been part of Sanchez's ruling coalition in the past. A convicted member of the armed Basque separatist organization ETA, Otegi spent more than three years in prison for his part in the notorious kidnapping of Basque businessman Luis Abaitua in 1987.
"This would be 'Frankenstein coalition,'" Javier Ruperez, former Spanish ambassador to the U.S., told Newsmax. "Nothing but horrors would come out of a government in which Puigdemont and Otegi had power — another illegal referendum on Catalonian independence, amnesty for terrorists, you name it."
Asked if he knew Otegi, Ruperez shot back: "I ought to. He kidnapped me in 1979" when the diplomat was a member of Parliament.
Sanchez and the left may not get a chance to form a government. With near-final returns in, the conservative Partido Popular won the most seats (136) in the Spanish Chamber of Deputies and the populist Vox Party captured 33.
Although PP Leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo will almost surely get the first crack at forming a government, he appears to have a harder task reaching a majority than Sanchez. He is expected to get the backing of the Canary Coalition, which rules in the Canary Islands, and the People's Union of Navarre, both of which are considered center-right parties.
But the two parties have only one seat each, and even with their support, Feijoo would still be shy of the necessary majority.
A failure to form a government after the new parliament meets on Aug. 17 would almost surely necessitate another election.
For now, the scenario of the "Frankenstein coalition" coming to power is keeping many in the center and right in Spain awake nights. They fear it could lead, as Ruperez said, "to the destruction of Spain."
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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