Spain set to increase minimum wage by 22% in bid to ease Catalonia tensions

Rise is part of attempt by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to build bridges with separatists in Barcelona after recent pro-independence protests

Spain’s government is set to agree a 22 per cent increase in the national minimum wage next week as part of a bid to ease tensions between Madrid and Barcelona.

Prime minister Pedro Sanchez will hold a cabinet meeting next week in the Catalan capital at which the rise to €900 (£810) a month is likely to be passed.

The increase will move Spain’s legal minimum pay further ahead of neighbour Portugal’s which is around €795 when adjusted for the cost of living. However, Spain will remain some way short of the UK where the full-time monthly minimum is around €1,270 on an adjusted basis. In Germany it’s €1,430.

Economic concerns have been at the heart of the dispute between Madrid and Catalan nationalists, who have complained for years that their region spends too much supporting poorer parts of Spain.

The region contributes around one fifth of Spain’s economic output and already has a high level of autonomy in areas such as education and health, along with its own police force.

Mr Sanchez’s government wrote to the pro-independence Catalan administration three times last week warning that further action could be taken after local police failed to ensure order during recent protests.

In an address to the Spanish parliament, the prime minister accused Catalan leaders of “inflammatory and unacceptable” rhetoric.

“The government will not accept any lapse in the functions of those entrusted with public order in Catalonia,” he said.

But Madrid needs support from the Catalan separatists to pass Spain’s 2019 budget and protests are likely to escalate in coming weeks ahead of a trial early next year of the leaders of the independence movement.

Debate over the question of secession is heated in Catalonia, which unilaterally declared independence last year.