The negotiations between the PSOE and ERC, which seem to be facing the final stretch towards the investiture, are discreet, but not secret – as those of Junts are until now – and yesterday, taking into account the strategy and interests of the parties, both parties jointly reported the existence of a morning telephone call lasting just over half an hour between the acting president, Pedro Sánchez, and the president of Esquerra, Oriol Junqueras.
The talk was held just a few hours before Sánchez's meeting with the parliamentary spokesperson of the republican group, Gabriel Rufián, to refine the negotiation of the investiture. Rufián was optimistic about the negotiation, but denied the PSOE the much-sought candy of stability: “We are not negotiating a legislature, we are negotiating the vote for an investiture. And the Esquerra vote is sweated,” he repeated three times.
Both the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, from Bologna (Italy), and the parliamentary spokesperson repeated that the telephone conversation between Sánchez and Junqueras “is nothing more than the normalization of what should be normal” and avoided giving it more significance, but The precedents point out the opposite: that this call, mutual recognition of interlocutors and legitimacy, is substantial for the agreement. “A show of cordiality and mutual respect and one more step towards political normality.”
Junqueras, according to ERC, valued the relationship that his party and the PSOE maintained in the last legislature, with the repeal of sedition and pardons as maximum exponents, in addition to "the importance of progress in political and social terms." while the President of the Government insisted on the urgency of an “agreement on progress and stability for this period.”
It is worth remembering that the president of the Esquerra parliamentary group in the Parliament, Josep Maria Jové, met privately in Barcelona on Friday with the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños. For the Republicans, the agreement is far away, despite the fact that the Sánchez-Junqueras call may imply otherwise. “Without progress in self-determination, there is no pact,” the party warns. Returning to the dialogue table, however, seems sufficient.
Rufián met with Sánchez in the company of Félix Bolaños, Minister of the Presidency. Upon leaving the meeting, Rufián did not cool his spirits regarding the possibility of an agreement, quite the contrary, but he did regarding the possibility of the Republican yes going an inch beyond the investiture session. Not even for the imminent 2024 general budgets.
Yes, he was specific regarding the three demands – “the three folders” – of recent weeks: amnesty, self-determination and well-being of citizens, although this time, in the allusion to the consultation, he avoided the term “referendum” and took pains to in using language very close to that of President Sánchez himself, speaking that the political solution for Catalonia “must be voted on.” He was not fetishistic about the amnesty either and spoke of “reparation” for what happened after October 1.
As for the “folder” of social advances, with the subtitle “improving people's lives,” the Republicans insist on the comprehensive transfer of the Rodalies train service and on correcting the Catalan fiscal deficit, explained Rufián. “They are demanding but reasonable conditions,” he said, “but they are more about the country than the party, because they transcend our acronyms and practically everyone in Catalonia can be in favor,” he explained.
Patxi López, spokesperson for the PSOE, appeared in the Congress press room after Gabriel Rufián to make it clear that the self-determination folder is not even going to be opened: “From minute one we have said that along paths that lead to division and rupture We socialists are not going to move.” That the leaders of the PSOE and ERC have spoken by phone is, for López, a sign that the negotiation is moving forward, but he did not clarify whether Pedro Sánchez will contact Carles Puigdemont directly throughout the negotiation process.
Sánchez's day of meetings in Congress had opened with his interview with the UPN deputy, Alberto Catalán, who reiterated his refusal, and with the Canarian Coalition deputy, Cristina Valido, who ruled out an affirmative vote for the investiture. but he admitted that he is negotiating his possible abstention – despite the fact that it is arithmetically innocuous to the outcome of the vote, since Junts only foresees an affirmative or negative vote – within the framework of an agreement for the creation of the single command for the migration crisis. , as well as other issues of the “Canarian agenda and economic affairs.” Valido recalled that, although the CC vote is not necessary during the investiture, it will be necessary during the legislature.
