A panel of black letters on a yellow background yesterday led the appearance of Oriol Junqueras to explain the agreement signed between the PSOE and ERC. “Amnesty", one check; “Resolve the political conflict”, another check; “Rodalies”, another check. It was prepared by Esquerra's communication and design team in a hurry, at noon. The president of the party was satisfied with the pact, but now it needs to be fulfilled, and to do so Junqueras subordinated the legislature and its stability to the degree of compliance with what was sealed yesterday.
“As long as there is compliance with these agreements, it is easier for the legislature to have continuity,” warned Junqueras, who maintains intact, as he said, his distrust of the credibility of the PSOE when it comes to making what was agreed effective. “Experience teaches us that both the PSOE and the different governments that have existed do not fulfill their commitments on multiple occasions,” he stressed. So for the Republican the guarantee of compliance is the “own need” of the PSOE. What is the need? Parliamentary stability. If some of the agreements do not materialize, the other party would have a free hand to withdraw from the global pact, he argued to the leader of Esquerra.
The pact document is very clear in this sense and in the obligations of the Republicans. It is assured that the ERC deputies in Madrid, in return, will not only support the investiture of Pedro Sánchez, but that if the stipulations are fulfilled "they will give stability to the legislature through good faith negotiation."
Even more: they will have “the will to approve the main legislative milestones”, especially with respect to the general budgets of the State or the recovery funds of the European Union. Also of the bills that the probable Sánchez government may send to Congress and the royal decrees.
Be that as it may, the Republican Party has been displaying the agreements this week as it closed them. On Tuesday, the amnesty – Pere Aragonès boasted yesterday of having achieved “a new impossible” –; Thursday morning, Rodalies. The last one, the one at the dialogue table. It will have continuity. PSOE and ERC recognize that once dejudicialization is consolidated through the amnesty law, they will move to a phase in which “the political future of Catalonia” is addressed.
But this time there is a novelty: Republicans and Socialists will appoint a “person of recognized prestige” who will be in charge of “verifying and monitoring” the conversations and the “agreements reached.”
The text avoids mentioning that figure as a rapporteur, intermediary or mediator, terms that have not been viewed favorably in the socialist ranks. Junqueras also avoided them. In any case, this person of “recognized prestige”, however, will not be present at the dialogue table between the Spanish and Catalan governments, but will be part of another parallel negotiation space, this time between the parties (PSOE and CKD).
This point partly undermines Junts' intention to establish an international mediator to ensure the agreements that it may sign with the PSOE within the framework of the investiture.
In any case, Junqueras trusted yesterday that Junts will join the group of political formations that plan to support Pedro Sánchez so that he is re-elected as president of the Government. He asked for “maximum responsibility” from the party whose negotiations Carles Puigdemont leads.
We would like to think that all political spaces will help this go well; “We are convinced that many of the issues on which we have reached agreement are good and everyone will commit and help,” he expressed.
The agreement also provides, among others, 150 million for research and 1.6 billion more until 2030 to guarantee the deployment of the Mossos d'Esquadra.
Junqueras appeared once the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, exhausted his explanation of the agreement from the PSC headquarters in Barcelona. The socialist summarized the pact in three categories: Rodalies, more public resources for Catalonia and the amnesty, although on this last matter he avoided commenting because the negotiation continues with Junts. However, he did not refrain from saying that “he will return to politics what should never have left politics.”
For the socialists, the agreement with ERC is one more step for Sánchez's investiture, waiting to conclude the pact with Junts, and to give way to a "stable legislature, of progress and coexistence."
When all the agreements are finalized, according to Bolaños, “a new political stage” will begin after the “social and political fracture” that was experienced in Catalonia. “The worst of Catalonia's past could not condition the future of Catalonia and Spain,” he justified to the Minister of the Presidency.
