The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, closed yesterday with two unprecedented meetings, EH Bildu and Junts, the round of contacts with the representatives of the parties present in Congress, except Vox, to ensure a sufficient majority for the investiture. Only three of the nine meetings held have been conclusive: the one held on Monday with Alberto Núñez Feijóo that ended with an expected resounding no, a position also held by UPN, and the confirmation, yesterday, of EH Bildu's support. Not even with his current partner, Sumar, was a pact closed after the meeting. Nor with the nationalists and even less with the Catalan independentists.
The strategy of Sánchez and the rest of the possible allies is discretion. The president said last week that the negotiations would be discreet and the agreements public and transparent. But today, and in light of what his successive spokesmen have said, Sánchez is not guaranteed the investiture. Let's see why.
The first meeting that the president had was held, in fact, on Wednesday of the previous week. Sánchez and Yolanda Díaz met alone – in the rest of the meetings the president has been accompanied by another PSOE negotiator. The leader of Sumar expressed the desire to reach an agreement but assured that it is not closed. They both know their pact must secure the votes of the five Podemos deputies who are demanding it, negotiate face to face with the PSOE and keep Irene Montero as Minister of Equality.
The round of contacts of the week began on Monday with Feijóo, without any surprise. The leader of the PP rejected any agreement – not even an abstention as has been suggested by certain sectors to avoid the pact with the independentists – and reproached Sánchez for a possible agreement that includes an amnesty. The president reminded him that the PP continues to violate the Constitution by preventing the renewal of the Judiciary.
On Tuesday, the president met with BNG spokesman Néstor Rego, who was optimistic about negotiating an agreement. Rego expressly asked the president that any agreement on a new territorial model reached for Catalonia includes Galicia in its status as a nation.
That same day, the PNV did not want to give Sánchez a blank check but opened the door to a negotiation that goes beyond the investiture, as requested by the head of the Executive after receiving the order from the King. It would make no sense to give a favorable vote to the investiture and then reject the budgets and leave the executive without the tools to get going, commented nationalist spokesperson Aitor Esteban. The Jeltzales also stressed the need to include in an eventual pact a “mode of operation” for the entire legislature. In any case, the PNV will emphasize self-government and compliance with previous agreements.
The first meeting on Wednesday was with the spokesman for the Navarro People's Union (UPN), Alberto Catalán, who reiterated his no to Sánchez and reproached him for his contacts with the independentists and the possible amnesty they demand of him. Catalán also attacked the PSOE for the negotiations and the “whitewashing” that, in his opinion, it does to “the political heirs of ETA, Bildu.”
Representing the Canarian Coalition (CC), Cristina Valido agreed to negotiate an abstention from the investiture after Sánchez's promise to unblock pending transfers. Both formations launched two negotiating teams to explore economic issues linked to budgets, the Canarian agenda and migration. If all goes well, CC would only consider abstention, to the extent that its affirmative vote is not necessary when Junts has already assured that only a vote for or against is considered.
But the highlight of Wednesday was the meeting with Esquerra spokesperson, Gabriel Rufián, which was preceded by a call from the acting head of the Executive to the Republican president, Oriol Junqueras, which raised speculation about a possible call also to the former president of the Generalitat Carles Puigdemont. After the meeting, Rufián rejected, as Sánchez wishes, an agreement for the entire legislature. “Party by party,” said the Republican spokesperson, who urged the PSOE to “sweat” each vote and reiterated to Sánchez the demand to advance in a referendum in Catalonia to support his investiture because for ERC it is not enough that there are agreements on the amnesty or on how to improve the daily lives of Catalans, a portfolio that includes solving the fiscal deficit and the Rodalies problem.
Sánchez's round of contacts ended on Friday after the break for the October Twelfth holiday with the spokespersons for EH Bildu in Congress and the Senate, Mertxe Aizpurúa and Gorka Elejabarrieta, respectively. Beyond confirming the announced support for the investiture of the acting president, the meeting served to normalize the nationalist formation, since it was the first public meeting of a President of the Government and a leader of one of the main Spanish parties. with representatives of the nationalist left.
Junts spokesperson, Míriam Nogueras, closed the round of contacts anticipating the most difficult negotiation for the acting president. The discretion marked since Waterloo was imposed at the end of the meeting and Carles Puigdemont's deputy limited herself to confirming that the "historic commitment" to which the former president appealed at the conference from Brussels at the beginning of September is still far away.
