“We maintain the course and the rhythm, we are not going to alter it,” they warn in the Moncloa after accepting the order from ERC and Junts, and after an absolute majority of 177 seats in Congress insisted yesterday on denying its confidence to Alberto Núñez Feijóo to form a government. At the same time, the doors are opening for Pedro Sánchez to undertake the difficult and dangerous route towards his re-election.
“We are convinced that there will be a government,” reaffirm the hard core of Sánchez's team, despite the turbulence suffered the day before when the Catalan independence movement conditioned its support for the investiture of the PSOE leader on opening the way to holding a self-determination referendum in Catalonia. A demand, “black on white”, approved yesterday by the Parliament.
“We are not going to go through there. And there is no doubt about it,” they categorically reject in the Moncloa. That was the implicit message in the joint statement with which the PSOE and the PSC responded to the condition that Junts and Esquerra agreed upon. With another added certainty: “The independentistas also have to know that the option of repeating the elections is still open,” they warn.
In the Moncloa, in the same sense, the forceful words with which the leader of the Catalan socialists and head of the opposition in the Parliament, Salvador Illa, responded to the ERC and Junts motion yesterday stand out: “If we have to go back to elections , we'll go. And let the citizens choose.” The socialists remember that in the last general elections on 23-J, the PSC obtained 1.2 million votes, more than the sum of the votes gathered by ERC, Junts and the CUP together.
“There has never been that possibility on the table. We will not take a single step on the path of the rupture and division of Catalan society,” Illa concluded to reaffirm yesterday the socialists' rejection of self-determination.
In the leadership of the PSOE they consider that the motion of Esquerra and Junts to move towards the referendum has a lot of "toast to the sun", and that it responds above all to the struggle between both pro-independence formations to try to capitalize on the benefits of an investiture of Pedro Sánchez .
But seeing this demand formalized in a motion that the Parliament was going to approve, and therefore with "a political and legal value" to which they attach importance, they assure that it forced them to issue the joint statement of the PSOE and the PSC to "delimit the perimeter ” of the ongoing negotiation for Sánchez's re-election.
“Everyone has their legitimate political aspirations, but putting it black on white before a negotiation forces us to respond, precisely to warn that no one can leave the perimeter of the negotiation,” they argue in the leadership of the PSOE.
A socialist leader explains it differently: “We can give what we don't want, but we can't give what we can't.”
That is to say, regarding the amnesty, as Illa reiterated yesterday, the socialists are willing to “continue advancing coherent policies that have borne fruit and that have always had the support of the people within the framework of the Constitution,” as happened with the pardons for the imprisoned leaders of the process.
But the self-determination referendum is excluded from the negotiation for Sánchez's investiture, at least by the socialists. As a socialist minister warned the day before, this negotiation will not imply that there is an “open bar” for the demands of the independence groups. “There is no possible progress along that path,” concluded the statement from the PSOE and the PSC.
“We have already established our position. And they have become very clear what the limits are in the negotiation,” they say in Moncloa, in response to the demands of Junts and ERC. Although they also highlight that it is the same position as always, of rejection of the referendum, and that their interlocutors in these pro-independence formations "know it perfectly." However, they avoid speculating whether the motion approved by the Parliament had the approval of both Carles Puigdemont and Oriol Junqueras.
Pedro Sánchez, despite already confirming that the path to his re-election will be riddled with mines, nevertheless maintains the course and the conviction that he will achieve re-election and avoid an electoral repetition.
The leader of the PSOE will thus accept the task that the King is expected to give him next Tuesday, to articulate a majority for his investiture, at the end of his new round of consultations with the representatives of the parliamentary groups. A round to which, however, the spokespersons for Junts, Esquerra, EH Bildu or the BNG will not attend either. Sánchez plans to appear that same Tuesday at Moncloa to announce it. His team assures that this is the tradition when a president runs for his own re-election.
And there is still no deadline set, at least for now, to convene the plenary session of Sánchez's investiture debate. According to custom, it will be the candidate, in common agreement with the president of Congress, the socialist Francina Armengol, who will set the date on the calendar. The PSOE leadership insists that the aim is to accelerate everything possible, but also depending on the course of the negotiations with the parliamentary groups essential for the success of the effort, and particularly with Junts and Esquerra.
“Our aspiration is to achieve a quick investiture, we will have to rush because Feijóo has already made us lose a month and a half, but we still cannot set a date,” the socialists allege. After the King's order, the socialists will also open a round of contacts with all groups to take their final temperature before the investiture.
If possible, they hope that the investiture debate can be convened this October, but no one can guarantee that there will be no delays. At Moncloa they affirm that they are not willing to waste time: “Every day that passes is one less day for the candidate.”
Meanwhile, in the Moncloa and in the PSOE they will exploit Feijóo's failure in his investiture attempt, they will highlight his "surrender" to the far-right of Vox, and that "he is not an autonomous leader, but is directed by the hawks of his game".
A message that Sánchez himself will influence among his ranks: today he will star in a rally in the Sevillian town of La Rinconada, in which his team warns that "he will come out strong and with enthusiasm."
And without losing hope. “There will be an investiture,” everyone in the Moncloa and in the leadership of the PSOE affirm. But they also all keep their fingers crossed.
