Yesterday Socialists and Republicans signed an agreement to invest Pedro Sánchez. An agreement that was very advanced after the alliance reached on Tuesday night on the amnesty law and which materialized yesterday afternoon in a meeting in Barcelona between the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, and the president of ERC, Oriol Junqueras.
Despite this important advance ahead of Sánchez's investiture, the PSOE failed to convince Junts. The negotiations were continuous at dawn on Thursday and continued throughout the day yesterday with the aim of staging the agreement with Republicans and post-convergents. Finally they could only present the pact with ERC.
The socialists want to put an end to the negotiations on the amnesty to present a law that, sources in the conversations, assure that it invokes the rule of law and the Constitution as a basis for coexistence. "They want to put an end to the rejection and wear and tear that the processing of a proposal that has not yet been made public, but which is titled organic law to Normalize the Institutional, Political and Social Situation of Catalonia, is causing them."
Junts convened the leadership of the party in Brussels to decide whether to validate the alliance with the socialists, but in the end decided to leave its support for Pedro Sánchez on hold. The hotel in the Belgian capital that was hosting the meeting of the party's permanent executive had a room prepared in case Carles Puigdemont appeared to announce the pact, something that in the end did not occur. The former president already mentioned in X at night his distrust of the negotiations with the socialists and called for “prudence and caution.”
The post-convergents have chosen to continue negotiating, since they assure that there are small differences that, for the moment, separate them in the talks to agree on the amnesty law. Issues that for the socialists have their origin in the competition between Junts and ERC to dominate the independence board, and that, in any case, should not change the proposal that is already drafted and prepared to present in the Congress registry.
However, for JxCat these issues are insurmountable and must be resolved if they want to obtain their yes for Sánchez's investiture.
Despite the setback due to the uncertainty sown by the post-convergents, the PSOE does not intend to modify the calendar to invest Sánchez next week. They assure that there is still time and they hope to be able to register the amnesty law in Congress today to proceed with its processing. In the socialist ranks they also do not rule out that the agreement with Junts could be presented if the talks are consolidated.
While in Brussels Carles Puigdemont ended the party meeting, Bolaños together with Salvador Illa, at the headquarters of the Catalan socialists; Junqueras, at the ERC, and President Aragonès, at an event at the Modelo, separately outlined the agreement reached, after months of negotiations.
On paper, the forgiveness of 15,000 million of the Generalitat's debt has been signed, which has already revolted the president of the Junta of Andalusia, Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla, who has criticized the favorable treatment of Catalonia. Also the transfer of R1, R3 and part of R2 of Rodalies. A long-awaited demand that will be resolved with the creation of a joint Generalitat-State company, divided 50%.
Another of the issues signed is to maintain the dialogue table, initiated in the last legislature, to incorporate a verifier of “recognized prestige” and to address the low budget investment, among other issues regarding financing.
Bolaños congratulated himself on the agreement reached after months of negotiations. An agreement, which according to him, is aimed at making Catalonia more habitable and maintaining dialogue. For the Minister of the Presidency, the agreement signed with the Republicans is not only limited to the investiture, since ERC is committed to guaranteeing the stability of the executive throughout the next legislature.
Junqueras, who assured that with the alliance with the PSOE "Catalonia wins", also warned that support over the next four years will be subject to compliance with the agreements signed yesterday. The Republican leader appealed to the responsibility of Junts so that “all political spaces help make this go well.” For his part, Aragonès also celebrated the new pact and promoted an “amnesty” that is aimed at all those “retaliated without exception”, demanding the role of the Republicans by incorporating into the text those prosecuted for crimes of terrorism –Tsunami Democràtic and the CDRs–, which were initially left out of the proposal. For the president, this does not represent the final point of the negotiation with the Government, which must advance through the dialogue table “towards self-determination.”
But the obstacles to the amnesty law are not only in Junts' territory. The conservatives of the Judiciary ask for an extraordinary plenary session to reject the criminal oblivion of the process, and the PP, which demonstrates every Sunday against the amnesty, will present a battle in the Senate, where it plans to reform the regulations to delay the application of the law.
Furthermore, the socialists still lack the support of BNG, the Canarian Coalition and the PNV. The latter have already shown their discomfort with the pact with Sumar for incorporating economic measures that are difficult for the Jeltzales to digest. Sánchez is close to being re-elected president, but he still must overcome obstacles to reach the investiture debate.
