Catalan lawmakers to head both Spain’s congress and senate

Two Catalan Socialist officials will head Spain’s two chambers, the congress and the senate. The acting president of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, proposed the current public administrations minister, Meritxell Batet, for the lower chamber post. Philosophy professor Manuel Cruz will be the speaker of the senate.

This came on Friday morning, less than 24 hours after the pro-independence parties vetoed the Catalan Socialist leader Miquel Iceta as senator, therefore frustrating his hopes of leading the upper chamber after being picked by Sánchez.

Neither Batet nor Cruz will need the Catalan parliament’s go-ahead to take office, as they were both elected MP and senator, respectively, in the April 28 Spanish election.