Spain's acting PM Sanchez meets Catalan, Basque separatists in bid for new term

MADRID (Reuters) -Spain's Pedro Sanchez met with Catalan pro-independence party Junts and became the first Spanish prime minister to hold official talks with Basque separatist party EH Bildu on Friday, as the caretaker leader seeks to form a new government.

Sanchez's Socialists (PSOE) need support from Catalan and Basque separatist groups to win an investiture vote before Nov. 27 or face a fresh election next year after an inconclusive vote in July.

"We're still far from a historic compromise," Junts parliamentary spokesperson Miriam Nogueras said about a potential agreement, after meeting Sanchez.

Nogueras said Junts would not be satisfied with talks over Catalonia such as those held with rival party Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya during Sanchez's previous term.

Junts is demanding an amnesty that potentially covers more than 1,400 people involved in a Catalan independence bid that came to a head in 2017.

Sanchez has said he is seeking an agreement that would involve not only support for an investiture, but an alliance to approve legislature that includes passing a budget.

"For the PSOE, the commitment to co-existence, dialogue and plurality is the road map for securing the investiture of Pedro Sánchez," the Socialists said in a statement after the meeting.

Risking censure from voters angry at decades of violence in Spain from the now-defunct Basque armed group ETA, Sanchez also met with Bildu's spokesperson in Congress, Mertxe Aizpurua, and her counterpart in the Senate, Gorka Elejabarrieta.

Bildu helped Sanchez form a government in 2020 by abstaining in the investiture vote and has already pledged unconditional support as he seeks a new four-year term in office.

Founded in 2012 as a coalition of Basque left-wing parties, Bildu was initially outlawed on suspicion of its closeness to ETA. Bildu, some of whose members are former ETA militants or sympathisers, has publicly rejected violence.

"Today's photo of Pedro Sanchez with Bildu ... is undoubtedly a picture of humiliation," said Cuca Gamarra, parliamentary spokesperson for the opposition People's Party.

(Reporting by Joan Faus and Belen Carreño; writing by Charlie Devereux; editing by Andrei Khalip and Alexander Smith)