"The PSOE will speak," assured Pedro Sánchez yesterday, after long weeks of grave silence on the content of the under-the-radar negotiations, particularly with Junts and ERC, on an amnesty law for those accused of the process and other points of ongoing talks, to be able to seal an investiture pact.
Sánchez himself said yesterday that this morning he will take the floor before the PSOE's federal committee - the party's highest body between congresses - to set the position "on the various aspects that are involved or affect this investiture process".
Only Emiliano García-Page, leader of the Socialists of Castilla-La Mancha and the only regional president of the PSOE that still has an absolute majority, plans to express his opposition to the amnesty today in the Ferraz conclave. And, with the Aragonese Javier Lambán on leave, he is aware that he is in the minority. Almost no one in the PSOE likes the amnesty, except as a formula to continue "building coexistence" in Catalonia. But almost all of them prefer, as a higher good, that Sánchez gets re-elected as president, that the elections are not repeated and that the way is cleared for a PP executive with Vox.
And Sánchez knows that this is a very majority position between the leadership and the socialist militancy. "I have absolute and resounding confidence that the support will be very important", assumed the socialist leader yesterday. This is how the vast majority of the cadres and leaders of the PSOE, organic and institutional, are transferred there, as he highlighted.
The PSOE will speak in the federal committee, but so will the bases of the party in the consultation with the militancy that will be approved today. With a relevant innovation, which Sánchez revealed yesterday from Brussels, after the European Council.
The federal statutes of the PSOE establish that any government agreement, such as the one signed with Sumar, the formation of Yolanda Díaz, must be consulted on the bases. But Sánchez announced that the question will go further.
The leader of the PSOE will also claim the endorsement of the affiliates not only on the pact with Sumar - as he already did in 2019 on the coalition with Podemos, for which he obtained a very broad support of 92% -, but also on the eventual agreements he can reach with the rest of the parliamentary groups essential to build a majority of investiture, including Junts and ERC, before and after all they are closed.
Sánchez announced that this time he will submit to consultation if the militancy endorses seeking parliamentary agreements with the rest of the political formations that allow the PSOE to obtain a majority for the investiture.
And he justified that if the consultation is now formulated in these terms, it is because he wants them to pronounce on the parliamentary agreements with the rest of the forces. "We cannot go into more detail because we are in the negotiation process, not only with Junts or with ERC, but also with PNB, BNG, Bildu or Coalició Canària", he added. If he had to wait to seal agreements with all these groups to consult the affiliates, he alleged, it would be necessary to go to November 27. Right on the day the deadline for the investiture expires.
In other words, Sánchez will ask in this consultation "for everyone to express themselves on whether they agree to obtain the parliamentary majority that allows the investiture or not".
The leader of the PSOE insisted that, in the meantime, negotiations continue to set up pacts with the groups that "will guarantee the parliamentary stability that makes this legislature feasible". And he predicted imminent news: "We will continue to make progress in the coming days."
Finally, Sánchez put in the hands of Yolanda Díaz the incorporation of Podemos ministers into the future government, if there is an investiture. "I am not the one who has to answer this question", he alleged.
