Of the 22 ministers who will make up Pedro Sánchez's new Government, there are two who are a good fit for ERC: Fernando Grande-Marlaska and Margarita Robles. The first will continue to head the Ministry of the Interior and Raquel Sans, spokesperson for the Republicans, has considered that in a department “as delicate and strategic” as that, it is not a name he likes. “We would like there to be someone committed to human rights,” specified the Catalan leader of Marlaska, who was criticized by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) for not investigating mistreatment of detainees. She also authorized incommunicado detentions before 2011 when he was serving as a judge.
De Robles, Esquerra regrets that he repeats this, since he is the figure who has been in charge of the Ministry of Defense when the massive espionage of the pro-independence environment through Pegasus was discovered.
However, Sans did not want to comment on the rest of the ministers, insisting on the idea that ERC is only interested in ensuring that the agreements that the PSOE entered into with its formation to facilitate Sánchez's investiture are fulfilled. “The names of the ministers are not important, but compliance with the agreements,” the spokesperson stressed. Some pacts that translate into the future approval of the amnesty, addressing self-determination at the dialogue table, the transfer of Rodalies and improvements in financing for Catalonia. Sans has warned the President of the Government that “you have to have everything if Sánchez wants stability for his government.”
The Republicans have downplayed the fact that there is only one member of the PSC in the Council of Ministers: Jordi Hereu. Sans has stated that the improvements for Catalonia ERC has negotiated with the PSOE, and not with the Catalan socialists, which is why he has disdained his role in the entire negotiation process that led to the investiture.
One of the agreements, that of the amnesty law, is the one that currently keeps Esquerra most on alert. From the moment the criminal oversight rule was made public and the PSOE registered it, those of Oriol Junqueras warned that he was subjecting the text to a magnifying glass "to guarantee maximum legal certainty." This was last Monday. Today, Republicans continue to analyze it. Sans, in fact, has assured that his party reserves the possibility of amending the document even until it is finally approved in Congress.
In any case, the speaker did not want to delve into details “due to the judicial offensive.” Even so, the Republican circle points to the possibility of fine-tuning the exclusion of terrorist crimes, to ensure that those prosecuted for this offense, such as Marta Rovira or Carles Puigdemont, by the Democratic Tsunami, as well as the CDRs detained by the Operation Judas, stay outside the law.
