The complex arithmetic of the Congress of Deputies allows us to venture that the legislature will not be placid for the Government of Pedro Sánchez. Tying up support for the investiture was not easy and neither will it be easy to move forward with the legislative packages, which depend on several parliamentary groups, including Junts per Catalunya. It seems that it will be the toughest nut to crack, but not the only one.
Next week there may be a first test of this. It is expected that the plenary session of the Lower House, which will meet in an extraordinary manner in the Senate for reforms in the Carrera de San Jerónimo building, in addition to the debate on the entire amnesty law, will vote on the validation of three royal decrees from the Government: the so-called omnibus decree, another from the Ministry of Labor and anti-crisis measures.
Jordi Turull's formation, to this day, maintains its rejection of these decrees and warns that it can overthrow them. “They can be resubmitted rectified and they would be approved,” say sources from the post-convergent formation, who criticize the inclusion of a point that, in their opinion, may affect the application of the amnesty law as well as the invasion of jurisdiction in some other matters that are regulated in the draft.
The matter was addressed yesterday in a meeting in Barcelona by Turull himself and the organizational secretary of the PSOE, Santos Cerdán, a regular interlocutor of the post-convergents and a person of Sánchez's greatest confidence.
At the beginning of the legislature, JxCat already pointed out that it would be very attentive to the competence aspect, just like the PNV, with whom those from Turull coordinate and have recovered the good harmony of yesteryear. In fact, Sabin Etxea will not officially clarify their position on the decree until next week. They have some doubts about this and the Jeltzales avoid, for the moment, publicly announcing what they will do.
EH Bildu, in turn, does not reveal the meaning of its vote and sources close to the coalition indicate that they are studying the content of the decrees. A statement similar to that made by Esquerra Republicana: “Our legal team is reviewing it before deciding the vote.”
However, Junts is the only group that has clearly said that it will speak out against it. To change its mind, the independence party demands that the Government remove from the decree that it approved on December 19 and that will be voted on next week a regulatory change by which judicial cases will be paralyzed when a magistrate raises a preliminary question to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) of Luxembourg. It is a common practice in judicial processes in Spain, but they believe that it affects the application of the amnesty.
“I don't know how many meetings there have been or will be, but for now our position is no, as we have made clear,” say sources from the post-convergents, aware that they will receive pressure from the socialists to modify their initial position.
From Junts they point out that first the amnesty law can be carried out – at the end of January – and then that measure related to the preliminary ruling questions to the CJEU that the European Commission demands in another decree, which with the current wording would come into force next month of March.
In Turull's formation there are those who believe that including it in a first decree could be a measure by the Minister of the Presidency, Justice, Relations with the Cortes and Democratic Memory, Félix Bolaños, to appease the judiciary, angered by the latter's criticism. weeks from the post-convergents to the judges.
Miriam Nogueras, spokesperson for JxCat in Madrid, calls the decree “Macedonia” since it covers various areas – justice, public service, local government and patronage – and “makes political positioning difficult”, a criticism that has also been expressed by the PNV.
As an example, Junts points out that in the field of justice, articles of the Statute are not complied with, there is centralization and the necessary resources are not foreseen to execute all the changes that are included in the current wording. In energy matters, party sources say, electricity and gas bills become more expensive during the months of the year when it is most necessary to use this source of energy and in relation to the free public transport, the post-convergers regret that part of the payment is imposed. of the free service to the Generalitat. "Do we also have to pay for public transportation for tourists?" they ask from JxCat.
Although the decrees can be validated and, later, processed as a bill to modify some aspects, Junts sources are suspicious of this option because during processing it could not be changed in the direction they want, there are no guarantees. Nor trust. Another of Junts' complaints is that in the first draft that Moncloa provided them with the text, as they explain, the article related to the prejudicial issues did not appear.
