Spain’s institutions are groaning under partisan pressure

IN A WELL governed country, who runs the statistical agency or the courts is not a partisan issue. But in an increasingly embittered Spain, the basic functions of government, and especially trust in the judiciary, are being poisoned by politics. Things are not as bad as in Poland under its just-departed populist government, but they are moving in the wrong direction.Pedro Sánchez’s Socialist party came second in July’s elections, but brought together a rag-bag of parties to support his return as prime minister. Chief among the favours offered was an amnesty to the supporters of an illegal independence referendum held in Catalonia in 2017. The amnesty bill will be challenged in the Constitutional Tribunal when it passes. But Mr Sánchez has tilted that court to a sympathetic majority by appointing two left-leaning judges; its head is a former chief prosecutor under a previous Socialist government.