The PP is not surprised that the president of the Generalitat Pere Aragonès has decided to deploy the mechanism with which he intends a broad debate in Catalonia that lays the foundations for a self-determination referendum agreed with the Government. He is not surprised, because it is what ERC has been saying since it was in the Government. For this reason, his gaze is directed to the other interlocutor, Pedro Sánchez, with whom Aragonès would have to agree to that consensual referendum.
The spokesperson for the Popular Group in Congress, Cuca Gamarra, and general secretary of the PP, therefore focused on the Prime Minister, from whom she demands a response to Aragonès, in which he clarifies "how he is going to act" and "What are you going to do as President of the Government after having been weakening the Rule of Law with the repeals in the Penal Code of the crimes that come to protect the constitutional framework".
Gamarra considers that the president of the Generalitat is limited to "deploying the road map" that he has announced so many times, and that everyone, including the president of the Government, knew that he was going to deploy because, said the popular spokesperson "the independentistas have said that they would do it again", and that is what Pere Aragonès intends to do.
What the PP fears is that, just like the Government and its partners, they repealed the crime of sedition to obtain the favorable vote of ERC for the general State budget, and they reduced the penalties in certain cases of the crime of embezzlement, at the request of the pro-independence supporters, to favor those who have been accused of this crime, now the Executive, "as long as it remains in power", is willing to reach some kind of agreement with the pro-independence supporters, for an agreed consultation in Catalonia.
That is why the PP asks Sánchez for explanations, so that he makes it clear to all Spaniards if he is going to continue "on the side of the independentistas", that is, if "he is going to facilitate and favor the agreed independence referendum" that Pere Aragonès asks for Catalonia, and for which he has already announced the first steps he is going to take.
A fear that is not limited to what Pedro Sánchez can do in the remaining months of the legislature, who knows that it is very difficult for him to launch an initiative of this type, and even more so with the general elections in the offing, but to future, as a bargaining chip for a possible future government agreement so that Pedro Sánchez, if they give the numbers, remains at the head of the Executive.
For Cuca Gamarra, Aragonès "has been clear from the beginning" and his announcement is one more step on the path of "doing it again", in reference to the referendum on October 1, 2017. What worries him is that the situation is not is the same: "The big difference is who their ally is now, and that is that they are partners of Pedro Sánchez and they are guaranteeing that Pedro Sánchez is president of the Government of Spain in exchange for facilitating that path so that they achieve what the legal system does not allow them," he stressed.
For this reason, the spokesperson for the Popular Group called not on the pro-independence supporters, but on the President of the Government to pronounce on the intentions of Pere Aragonès and clarify "what he is going to do as President of the Government", because when the referendum for independence it was known that he was going to do the central government, which Mariano Rajoy presided over at the time, but now, he insisted, "there is something that has changed", since the independentistas "depend on him" and Pedro Sánchez "depends on them", in such a way that they have become "allies ".
Cuca Gamarra is referring to Aragonès' announcement that he will convene debates with parties, entities and citizens to address the proposal for a clarity agreement for an independence referendum agreed upon after the May 28 elections, and will commission a "plural" academic council " a report that proposes democratic formulas to resolve the political conflict in Catalonia, and which will then be submitted for consultation.
