The pact for Catalan is becoming the impossible square of the circle. ERC and Junts managed to design a way out this Wednesday through a new specific law on Catalan that would replace the original intention: the reform of the Language Policy law as agreed in March with PSC and En Comú Podem. But this exit, due to its content, does not please the Socialists at the moment, something that makes it impossible to reach a consensus on the matter that overcomes the political and judicial obstacles that have been occurring in recent weeks.
It has been the leader of the main opposition party, the socialist Salvador Illa, who has assured during a visit to Vilanova i la Geltrú that the last offer that ERC sent them late this Wednesday does not satisfy them. “A proposal for a new law was sent to us, from Junts and ERC, but we do not see it. We are where we were, in the agreement we reached, where there is a point of consensus in Catalan society”, concluded Illa.
At the moment, the Socialists do not see clearly the proposal that the Govern's partners were negotiating throughout Wednesday with the aim of Junts joining again a four-way pact (with ERC, PSC and common) on the language, although not was through the original agreed idea of reforming the Language Policy Law.
The commons do not see the ERC and Junts offer clearly either. Sources from Jéssica Albiach's training point out that they do not think that the proposed approach fulfills the objective of "protecting the centers from judicial interference", as they do believe that it was achieved with the reform of the Linguistic Policy Law. In any case, the PSC and common teams maintain contacts from the first hour to join a response.
The proposal on which the groups of the Government debated extensively was the elaboration of a specific law on Catalan in schools that did not include references to specific percentages on the learning of both languages, but neither Illa nor the common ones have wanted to go into details of the same, letting ERC and Junts be the ones to realize their idea.
What Illa did want to make clear is that “resolutions have to be fulfilled”, Catalan must “be the center of gravity” of the Catalan school and “defending Catalan is not going against Spanish”, she reiterated. That is why he has claimed the agreement presented on March 24 as the best recipe to get out of the mess that the Catalan is facing as a result of the attitude of Junts, who refuted what was signed on the same day, and of the TSJC, which Last week he gave the Government 15 days to execute its sentence that requires the introduction of 25% of Spanish in the classrooms. And time is short because the deadline expires on May 31.
For their part, the commons were already decided this Wednesday to register in Parliament the request to convene a Board of Spokespersons in order to modify the agenda of the next plenary session and vote on the reform of the Language Policy Law. The Socialists stopped this claim while waiting for the fruits of the negotiations between ERC and Junts, but even today the commons put this path on the table. If this request is registered, the renunciation of counting on Junts for a consensus on Catalan would be consummated.
The curious thing is that this Wednesday it seemed that the negotiations between ERC and Junts were being redirected thanks to the predisposition of the post-convergents to negotiate and find an alternative path to that of the reform of the Language Policy Law, while the other two protagonists with dish on the table, PSC and common, diluted their 24-hour ultimatum to take to Parliament, with Junts or if she, the legislative reform.
The rejection of socialists and commons complicates an exit that will please everyone and it remains to be seen if another day of negotiations will finally be exhausted or if PSC and commons will consummate their threat without the ERC also dropping from what was agreed on March 24. The room for maneuver narrows.
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