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A10 WORLD NEWS
Tuesday 14 January 2020

Protesters hold banners outside Westminster Magistrates
Court in London, where Julian Assange is due to appear,
Podemos (United We Can) leader Pablo Iglesias, centre, flanked by new Health Minister Salvador Monday, Jan. 13, 2020.
Illa, left and Podemos member Alberto Garzon, minister of consumption pose with their ministerial Associated Press
briefcases in Madrid, Spain, Monday, Jan. 13, 2020.
Associated Press WikiLeaks' Assange
Despite differences, Spain gets in UK court fighting

its new coalition government extradition to USA

By C. GILES and A. PARRA Catalonia is, by far, the big- pensions to increasing civil By GREGORY KATZ
Associated Press gest immediate problem — servants' wages and the Associated Press
MADRID (AP) — Spain's and one that will demand basic minimum wage. LONDON (AP) — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange
first coalition government unity within the govern- Sánchez will be mindful that made a brief court appearance Monday in his bid to
in the four decades since ment. his first attempt at govern- prevent extradition to the United States to face serious
the return of democracy Sánchez secured his gov- ment last year collapsed espionage charges.
took shape Monday as 22 ernment last week by two when the ERC voted down He and his lawyers complained they weren't be-
Cabinet ministers took their votes, the slimmest major- his 2019 spending plan. ing given enough time to meet to plan their battle
oaths of office. ity of any Spanish prime Sánchez and his chief aides against U.S. prosecutors seeking to put him on trial for
Questions though re- minister in recent decades. will also have a challenge WikiLeaks' publication of hundreds of thousands of
mained as to whether the He did it thanks to the ab- in maintaining the relation- confidential documents.
government of two left- stention of 13 members of ship with United We Can, The 48-year-old was brought to court from Belmarsh
wing parties can see out the pro-Catalan indepen- an upstart party that has Prison on the outskirts of London. He saluted the public
its four-year term as it is a dence ERC party on the got many of its votes from gallery, which was packed with ardent supporters in-
minority administration and promise that he would sit the 140-year-old socialists. cluding the musician MIA, when he entered the court-
confronts an array of vex- and talk with them about When the two parties failed room. He later raised his right fist in defiance when he
ing issues that could well how to resolve Spain's most in their first attempt to form was taken to holding cells to meet with lawyer Gareth
lead to tensions in the co- serious internal issue since a coalition, Sánchez said Peirce.
alition. the return to democracy in that neither he nor 95% of Peirce said officials at Belmarsh Prison are making it
Beyond handling separat- 1978. Spaniards would be able to extremely difficult for her to meet with Assange.
ist tensions in the economi- The ERC, which has several sleep at night having Igle- "We have pushed Belmarsh in every way —- it is a
cally powerful northeastern leading members jailed for sias and his inexperienced breach of a defendant's rights," she said.
region of Catalonia and re- an illegal independence colleagues in charge of im- Assange refrained from making political statements.
charging what is the fourth push in 2017, insists on self- portant ministries. He confirmed his name and date of birth, and at one
largest economy in the determination for Catalo- But five months later, Sán- point said he didn't understand all of the proceedings
eurozone, Socialist Prime nia, something the Spanish chez took many by surprise against him during the brief hearing at Westminster
Minister Pedro Sánchez has Constitution and Sánchez when days after the Nov. Magistrates' Court.
a tricky task in maintaining rules out. 10 general election he em- He faces 18 charges in the U.S., including conspiring
the support of his coalition What the Socialists can braced Iglesias on signing to hack into a Pentagon computer. He has denied
partner, Pablo Iglesias, the legally offer to keep the a coalition deal. wrongdoing, claiming he was acting as a journalist
leader of the anti-austerity ERC from voting against Both parties lost seats in entitled to First Amendment protection.
United We Can party. the government is still un- the last election and pos- Many advocacy groups have supported Assange's
"Either they cooperate or known. sibly sensed that a further claim that the charges would have a chilling effect
they will open the door to On the economic front, slide could see a right-wing on freedom of the press.
a right-wing coalition sup- Spain is still among Eu- government take power in A five-day extradition hearing is scheduled for late
ported by the far-right," said rope's healthy economies, Madrid. February. Assange's legal team has tried to delay the
Ana Sofía Cárdenal, a po- with growth of around 2% A major sticking point could hearing so there is more time to prepare, but these
litical science lecturer with in 2019. The government's be Iglesias' support for a requests have been denied.
Catalonia's UOC university. chief problem is getting a referendum in Catalonia. Assange has already served a 50-week prison sen-
"A failure of the coalition budget through that will Curtailing abusive house tence in Britain for jumping bail. A rape investigation
would dent the credibil- satisfy the European Union, rents and accommodating launched against him in Sweden has been dropped,
ity of United We Can and investors as well as fulfilling more migrants are two oth- so he would likely be freed from prison if extradition is
damage the reputation of the social promises it has er demands the Socialists denied.q
the Socialists." been made, from raising may find hard to meet. q