"We maintain the course and rhythm, we will not alter it", they warn Moncloa after accepting the invitation of ERC and Junts, and after an absolute majority of 177 seats in Congress insisted yesterday on denying their confidence in Alberto Núñez Feijóo to form a government. At the same time, the doors are opening for Pedro Sánchez to take 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 on the eve when Catalan independence made its support conditional on the investiture of the leader of the PSOE, which opens the way towards the celebration of a self-determination referendum in Catalonia. A demand, "black on white", approved yesterday by Parliament.
"We will not pass by here. And there is no doubt about that", categorically reject the Moncloa palace. This was the implicit message in the joint communique with which the PSOE and the PSC responded to the condition that Junts and ERC agreed upon. With another certainty added: "Independenceists must also know that the option of repeating the election remains open", they warn.
In Moncloa, they note, in the same sense, the forceful words with which the leader of the Catalan Socialists and leader of the opposition in Parliament, Salvador Illa, responded to the ERC and Junts motion yesterday: "If there is a need to return to elections, we will go. And let the citizens choose". The socialists remember that in the last general elections of 23-J the PSC obtained 1.2 million votes, more than the sum of the votes that gathered ERC, Junts and the CUP together.
"This possibility has never been on the table. We will not take a single step towards the rupture and division of Catalan society", concluded Illa to reaffirm yesterday the socialists' rejection of self-determination.
The leadership of the PSOE consider that the motion of Esquerra and Junts to advance towards the referendum has a lot of "toast in the sun", and that it mainly responds to the struggle between the two pro-independence formations to try to capitalize on the benefits of an investiture of Pedro Sanchez
But seeing this demand formalized in a motion that had to be approved by Parliament, 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 the re-election of Sánchez.
"Everyone has their legitimate political aspirations, but putting black on white before a negotiation forces us to respond, precisely to warn that no one can leave the perimeter of the negotiation", argue the PSOE leadership.
A socialist leader explains it another way: "We can give what we don't want, but we can't give what we can't".
In other words, with respect to the amnesty, as Illa reiterated yesterday, the socialists are ready to "continue to advance in coherent policies that have borne fruit and that have had the support of the people always within the framework of the Constitution". as happened with the pardons to the leaders of the imprisoned 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 on the eve, this negotiation will not imply that there is a "free range" for the demands of pro-independence groups. "There is no possible progress along this path", concluded the statement from the PSOE and the PSC.
"We have already set our position. And they have become very clear what the limits are in the negotiation", they affirm in Moncloa, in the face of the demands of Junts and ERC. Although they also emphasize that it is the same position as always, of rejecting the referendum, and that their interlocutors in these pro-independence formations "know it perfectly". However, they avoid speculating about whether the motion approved by Parliament had the approval of both Carles Puigdemont and Oriol Junqueras.
Pedro Sánchez, despite the fact that he has already noted that the path to his re-election will be full of mines, maintains the course and the conviction that he will achieve re-election and avoid an electoral repeat.
The leader of the PSOE will thus accept the task that is expected to be transmitted to him by the King 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 of Junts, Esquerra, EH Bildu or the BNG will not attend either. Sánchez plans to appear in Moncloa on Tuesday to announce it. His team assures that this is the tradition when a president runs for his own re-election.
And it continues without setting a deadline, 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 the Congress, the socialist Francina Armengol, who sets the date on the calendar. The PSOE leadership insists that the intention is to speed up everything possible, but also depending on the course of negotiations with the parliamentary groups essential for the success of the effort, and singularly with Junts and Esquerra.
"Our aspiration is to achieve a quick investiture, we will have to run because Feijóo has already made us lose a month and a half, but we still can't set a date", allege the socialists. After the King's order, the socialists will also open a round of contacts with all the groups to take their final temperature before the investiture.
If possible, they hope that the investiture debate can be convened in October, but no one can guarantee that there will be no delays. In Moncloa they claim that they are not ready to waste time: "Each day that passes is one less day for the candidate".
Meanwhile, Moncloa and the PSOE will exploit the failure of Feijóo in his attempt to investiture, they will highlight his "claudication" before the ultra-right of Vox, and that "he is not an autonomous leader, but is led by the hawks of his party ".
A message that Sánchez himself will influence among his ranks: today he will lead a rally in the Sevillian town of La Rinconada, in which his team warns that "it will come out strong and with desire".
And without losing hope. "There will be an investiture", say everyone in Moncloa and the PSOE leadership. But all of them are also crossing their fingers.
