As Catalonia turns up the heat, Madrid’s politicians are ever more divided

Almost a month on from an unprecedentedly divisive general election, Spain seems further away from forming a new government than ever. In Madrid’s grandiose Palacio de las Cortes on Wednesday, the Spanish parliament convened for the first time since the December 20 vote, and it proved an eventful session – but not because some combination of the four main parties managed to move towards a coalition government. Division, not unity, was the order of the day.

Oaths were taken in Catalan, Basque and Galician as well as Castilian; Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias tweeted bitchy remarks about other parties during proceedings in which his political secretary vowed to rewrite the Spanish constitution; Ciudadanos leader Albert Rivera was also busy on social media, tweeting that Spain is entering a ‘second transition’; and amidst all the political crossfire, acting prime minister Mariano Rajoy reiterated the importance of a unified Spain in the face of a reinvigorated secessionist movement in Catalonia.