Spanish gov't, socialist opposition sign anti-terrorism pact

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and the opposition Socialist (PSOE) Party leader Pedro Sanchez signed a pact aimed at combating terrorism on Monday.

The deal was inked at Rajoy's official residence at the Palacio de la Moncloa in the Spanish capital of Madrid on Monday evening.

The agreement, which has been reached after two weeks of intense negotiations, means Rajoy's Popular Party and the PSOE will now push the new legislation on a fast track through Congress after it is registered on Tuesday.

"The representatives of the two main parties in Spain are a single force when it comes to the protection of the most ...," said Rajoy as he and Sanchez both made brief statements to the press without allowing any questions after the signing.

"We are giving ourselves the best measures possible to protect the rights and freedoms of Spaniards," he added, while Sanchez commented the accord was "essential to protect our rule of law in the fight against jihadi terrorism".

The agreement has been criticized by other parliamentary groups with United Left (Izquierda Unida) leader Cayo Lara lamenting that his party were not included in the negotiations, a similar complaint to that of Catalan nationalist formation Convergence and Union (CiU), the center-right Union Progress and Democracy (UpD) and the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV).

Spain's current anti-terrorist legislation is considered to be out of date as it was designed to deal with the threat of Basque separatist group ETA, which announced a permanent ceasefire slightly over three years ago, rather than the relatively new jihadist threat.

Jihadist recruitment networks have been active in Spain and especially the North African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla and 70 percent of all of those accused of jihadism in Spain between 1996 and 2012 were radicalized or partly radicalized inside the country. Endit