"Step by step", warn Moncloa. Without precipitation that could damage the negotiations, but no longer allowing himself any pause, Pedro Sánchez is advancing towards his re-election as president of the Spanish government, with the intention of winning the investiture next week in a first vote, by an absolute majority , which Congress foresees that it can be held on Thursday 9 or Friday 10 November.
The negotiating team of the PSOE, commanded to complete the Catalan portfolio by the acting Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, is now finalizing the talks with Junts per Catalunya to seal a bill on amnesty for those accused of the process, and intends to submit it immediately to the Congress registry.
Bolaños himself is in Barcelona to seal this agreement with former president Carles Puigdemont's training. The white smoke, if nothing goes wrong as planned, is a matter of hours.
The intention of the PSOE is that this legislative initiative is a joint one of all the groups, or at least of the majority, that could join the bloc of yes to the investiture. On Tuesday afternoon, Sánchez himself held a telephone conversation with the current president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, to unlock "the final details of the future amnesty law" with ERC.
The PSOE and ERC agreed, on Tuesday night, to consider "fulfilled their expectations and satisfied their political principles on this rule", to be able to register a bill in Congress, before holding the investiture debate.
And now Bolaños is trying to close the agreement on this point with Junts, after the secretary of organization of the PSOE, Santos Cerdán, staged with Puigdemont in Brussels, on Monday, the progress of the negotiation "in the right direction".
According to the PSOE leadership, even among the most suspicious socialist sectors, the rule will be perfectly constitutional. And it will be shielded from the predictable right-wing appeals before the Constitutional Court.
In his plea in favor of amnesty before the federal committee of the PSOE, last Saturday, Sánchez warned that he has the responsibility to promote this initiative to "proceed on the path of reunion" and move towards the "definitive overcoming of conflict" in Catalonia. Without the concurrence of the PP, immersed in a harsh offensive against the amnesty from the streets and institutions.
The socialist leader lamented that for more than twenty years, with José María Aznar, the line of action of the PP has been to "add fuel to the fire" in Catalonia. "They hope that this fire will burn the progressives and serve as fuel for them to regain power", he warned. Now also with Alberto Núñez Feijóo at the head of the PP.
Making necessity a virtue, as justified by Sánchez, after the elections of 23-J there are 56 deputies in Congress who "claim an amnesty to support the investiture". He thus referred to the seats held by Sumar, ERC, Junts, EH Bildu and the PNB, although with the support of the BNG the number would rise to 57 deputies. With the 121 seats of the socialist group, the amnesty would be guaranteed, in its processing and approval, by an absolute majority of 178 deputies.
And for the investiture, the PSOE also does not rule out the support of Coalició Canària for a bloc of yes to Sánchez that would thus obtain 179 votes. More than enough to win the bloc of the noque form the PP, the ultra-right of Vox and UPN, which add up to 171 deputies.
"We will not take this step alone", said Sánchez in front of the federal committee. "There is a large majority in Parliament that supports this initiative, which asks us to move in this direction. And there is an overwhelming majority in Catalan society that wants to turn the page", warned the socialist leader.
The PSOE plan is to immediately register the amnesty law proposal in Congress, even today or tomorrow. And it is also not ruled out that this Friday the president of the Congress, Francina Armengol, will already announce the date of the investiture debate for next week. "Everything will go very quickly", insist the socialists. They definitely step on the accelerator.
