The Canarian Coalition's proposal for the Basque Nationalist Party to assume the presidency of the Congress of Deputies has increased the tension of the negotiations for the election of the Parliamentary Bureau next Thursday, August 17. Some negotiations that are going to be very thick and that may have dizzying moments in the next 72 hours. The foundations of a very uncertain legislature are at stake, as a consequence of the unexpected electoral results of last July 23.
The proposal of the Canarian nationalist coalition, announced yesterday by its general secretary, Fernando Clavijo Batlle, in an interview with La Vanguardia, introduces an unprecedented variable that is not to the liking of the Socialist Party and its Sumar allies. Socialist sources communicated it discreetly yesterday and Yolanda Díaz, acting second vice president, expressed it publicly in an act in Galicia. Díaz said that the “progressive majority” must be made clear on Thursday. The left wants to have control of the Congress Table before the unappealable absolute majority of the Popular Party in the Senate. The government of the rhythms and parliamentary procedures will be essential in the next legislature, if it manages to start.
To maintain control of political time in Congress, the left will have to obtain the support of almost all its possible parliamentary allies next Thursday, a task that currently exceeds the compositional demands of a Byzantine mosaic in the Ravenna cathedral.
If Junts abstains or votes against the proposal of the left for the Table, the only seat of the Canary Coalition becomes essential, as long as Esquerra Republicana, Bildu and the Galician Nationalist Bloc support the distribution. The latest news is that ERC is getting nervous. On Friday they almost took their support for a socialist presidency of Congress for granted. Yesterday they put three important political conditions: the introduction of the Catalan language in the Cortes, the creation of an investigation commission on the Pegasus case (alleged espionage on politicians and pro-independence activists), plus a first draft of a future amnesty law, as reported by Isabel Garcia Pagan today in this newspaper. To date, the PSOE negotiators, headed by the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, have been working with the premise that the conditions for the investiture would remain unrelated to the negotiation of the Table. First, ensure control of political time in Congress and then negotiate the conditions for a new investiture for Pedro Sánchez.
ERC fears being left out of the game given the prominence that Junts per Catalunya is acquiring as the unexpected king maker of Spanish politics. They fear being overwhelmed by the return of the Count of Monte Cristo. There is less than a month left for the celebration of Onze de Setembre, the annual catalyst for the feelings, perceptions and moods of nationalist Catalonia. Clink, clink, clink. The sound of the 155 silver coins falling on the pavement still resounds at night in the Sant Jordi hall of the Palau de la Generalitat, currently under construction. Nobody wants to pass for a traitor in Catalonia when the night of the torches approaches in the Fossar de les Moreres, the place where many defenders of the city of Barcelona were buried during the Bourbon siege of 1714. ERC threatened yesterday to vote against the proposal of the left for the Table of Congress if their demands are not properly accepted. That was not Bolaños's plan.
Almost all the possible parliamentary allies of the PSOE-Sumar binomial are restless today. The Canarian Coalition has launched the PNV proposal to show that the arithmetic has changed and that the XV legislature –if it comes to fruition– will not be a mere continuation of the previous one. The moderate nationalist pole vindicates itself against the Bildu-ERC-BNG cordada, the left-wing sovereignism with which Podemos has maintained excellent relations in recent years. Not so Add. Yolanda Díaz does not move in that coordinate.
Canary Coalition proposes that the PNV preside over the Congress, to draw new geometries and those of Sabin Etxea remain in hermetic silence. Clavijo did not improvise in the interview with this newspaper, last Friday in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. When asked if he had previously informed the leadership of the PNV, the president of the Government of the Canary Islands replied that his contacts with the Basque nationalists are constant. Both formations have maintained a close relationship for years, despite the geographical distance and the obvious differences in the social model between the Basque Country and the Canary Islands. They have in common their specific tax regimes, a strong desire for uniqueness on the regional map and an aversion to leftism, a more pronounced trait in the Canary Islands Coalition.
Sepulchral silence in Sabin Etexea, headquarters of the PNV in Bilbao. Yesterday was Sunday and the Jesuits have held a school in the Basque Country. They know how to shut up They did not reject the proposal of their friend Clavijo, nor did they devote themselves to glossing it over. They are silent and wait.
The Popular Party took note of the Canarian movement. The PP is maintaining continuous contacts with leaders of the PNV and has sent some messages in Morse code to Waterloo. The next 72 hours will be very intense.
