An agreement without a photo, without party logos and signed with two different pens. An agreement that repeats three times the existence of deep or structural discrepancies. Santos Cerdán and Jordi Turull sealed the document that gave way to the investiture of Pedro Sánchez away from the cameras, in the hotel where the PSOE organization secretary had been staying for days while Carles Puigdemont waited in the European Parliament. There was no party at Waterloo. “This is not about photos and celebrations. And it goes beyond parties and partisanship,” they point out in Junts. Puigdemont has always placed his figure outside of organic corsets. The former president has not only led this negotiation outside the Junts executive, but he has put himself in charge of those that come with the seven deputies of his party voting in Congress on the management of the meantime.
The coldness of the scenery of the PSOE-Junts agreement contrasts with the snapshot of Oriol Junqueras with Félix Bolaños or the deference of Pedro Sánchez with the president of the PNV, Andoni Ortuzar, who is positioned as a premium partner. However, a certain cordiality and respect cannot be hidden between interlocutors after months of silent work and downtime to replenish toothpaste. Puigdemont and his people are “satisfied” and “hopeful”, but the sale of the “framework agreement” lowers initial expectations and leaves triumphalism aside.
The “historic agreement” that Puigdemont demanded in September has remained a “historic opportunity” and the no to everything in Congress four years ago has become a “responsibility.” The former president conditions the continuity of the Spanish legislature not on agreements, but on “progress” in a negotiation between parties that is already supervised by an international mediator. What is being tested is the mechanism agreed upon to resolve the Catalan conflict, but Junts' jump from intelligent confrontation to the negotiation table and its leading role in parliamentary arithmetic allows the PSOE to strengthen its commitment to "concord." and further isolate the right. The “reconciliation”, which has been pending since the transition, has its epicenter in Madrid.
Junts has counted more than three hundred occasions on which the former president has called for negotiation during the six years he has been installed in Belgium and attributes his isolation during the last legislature to “vetoes” that they attribute to ERC. “I was vetoed at the dialogue table,” said Turull in RAC 1. Dialogue and negotiation, even proposing a referendum that fits into article 92 of the Constitution, is now the frontispiece of the pact “without renunciations,” according to Junts , and, therefore, leaves a written reference of all the disagreements that are to come with the PSOE.
The validity of one table of governments and two of parties with monthly meetings for Junts and “periodic” ones for ERC remains to be seen. The confluence of negotiations – mediators included – is not ruled out, although in the independence competition no one accepts, for now, accommodating themselves to the rhythms of the electoral opponent.
In CKD they breathe with some relief. The Republicans were waiting, not without tension, for the final result of the Junts negotiation. With the document in hand, there were those who asked “Is there no annex?” Now they are reviewing the two sections of the amnesty law that have undergone modifications since they closed their pact with the PSOE as a result of Junts' insistence on reviewing the lawfare and the Tsunami judicial case. ERC maintains that “the mambo is over” in Junts, that having the post-convergents sitting at a negotiating table forces them to build bridges, although Puigdemont's manifest hostility to the Republicans' strategy persists: “he in exchange for nothing has gone to the trash can of history”, “we have lost four fundamental years”…
Puigdemont's line of communication with Pere Aragonès is weak but remains open. Even so, they trust in closing the budgets with the PSC, not with Junts, and no internal poll shows a viable pro-independence majority after the Catalan elections that would force reconciliation. Not even with this week's papal blessing.
