"This can be fixed with money". A regular at the Ritz salons with duplicate surnames and a starched shirt collar used this phrase to dismiss the Catalan demands when the process was intuited only by gifted senses of smell and the problem was not a political conflict but a cluster of clichés. With money - and much more - CiU invested José María Aznar in 1996 and, in Madrid, they got used to "buying" stability and his happiness. Claiming the money united the Catalan parties on 29 September 2005 to approve the Statute proposal in the Parliament of Catalonia. The money... and the hen with which Francesc Homs started laughter and applause in the morning: "Centuries ago they took away the hen - that laid big eggs and rossos – for the right of conquest. Now it's in Madrid, and it's about getting it back."
Neither the Statute nor the financing agreed between Artur Mas and José Luís Rodríguez Zapatero, nor the subsequent concretization with a Generalitat presided over by the PSC, were what was expected. The territorial distribution of resources was officially declared "unjust" by Àngel de la Fuente on behalf of Cristóbal Montoro. The reform has been stuck since 2014 and the pacts of the Statute reinterpreted by the Constitutional Court continue to be unfulfilled. The third additional provision – it was to last 7 years – is paid in more installments than a millennial mortgage; and the tax consortium never saw the light of day. The attempts of Mariano Rajoy's governments ended in failure - clean air is a contribution to the common fund, a PP baron suggested -; and those of Pedro Sánchez, in a drawer hanging from a calendar always in the electoral campaign.
Partisanship has turned the funding update into an impossible multilateral reform. The models applied are the result of the involvement and wear and tear of the Catalan governments and the adhesion, whether active or passive – vote against, I'll take the extra money – of the other communities. Without a previous State-Generalitat bilateral negotiation, there is no new autonomous system, but at the same time the asymmetry beyond the Basque Country, Navarre and the Canary Islands is ruled out. In 2015, the Palau de la Generalitat admitted that "it is easier to achieve independence than the fiscal pact" and the ballot boxes were cast.
After a decade of shaking the hen, calling for independence, with prisoners and leaders abroad, the socialists are trying to tempt the ERC and Junts with a trout to invest in Pedro Sánchez. The negotiation with the PNB and Bildu is not about money – this was resolved in the transition – but about electoral competition between abertzales, so the key is how to seduce Catalan independence.
"Financing does not solve anything", they warn in the Palace of the Generalitat. "We are not one more, if the conflict has to be resolved, it will be face to face", they conclude while waiting for a formal proposal from the PSOE. Money does not solve the Catalan conflict, but ghosts between territories are awakened. The Generalitat will be in all the forums where more resources are discussed - they guarantee Palau - but like all prices, the price of votes has also "increased".
The PSOE can promise to fatten the coffers of the Generalitat, look for formulas to reduce the debt and dilute the fiscal deficit, try to empower the possible Junts families with numbers and infrastructure projects... Measures can be re-examined to bring the amnesty closer without to be – didn't the PSOE already agree on this with ERC?– and shield – once again – Catalan as if the courts did not exist. But the decision on the vote of the 7th of Junts will continue in the hands of Carles Puigdemont.
La Moncloa and ERC believe that the pragmatic convergents can push the ex-president, the phones are ringing but who influences Puigdemont?. The ex-president dispatches every questioning gesture with tweets. The latest, by Yolanda Díaz: Reform the regulations to use Catalan in Congress? The Together in the Senate initiative fell after more than fifty extensions urged by the PSOE... Trust is key in a negotiation and Puigdemont has already said that he would not buy Sánchez "not even a second-hand car".
To start, Minister Félix Bolaños calls for realism in the negotiation in a playing field that is not governed by pragmatism and carries "uncertainty" by name. Together he imposed a pause even to appoint negotiators. If the ranks of the PSOE already frowned at the name of Míriam Nogueras before the elections, now with Puigdemont...
The tense wait for ERC
And at ERC they wait and despair. First in Sánchez and then in Junts. They admit that negotiating alone with the PSOE makes no sense no matter how many bridges are built. The Republicans revealed their cards during the campaign – dialogue table, transfer of Rodalies, fiscal deficit – and were already harshly rejected by Jordi Turull. In the damaged ranks of the ERC in Congress, Sánchez is expected to "surprise us" with his offer of a pact and to Junts they reply that he "will not dare" with amnesty and self-determination. "The finger and the moon", they repeat.
While Marta Rovira warns of the "disastrous consequences" of an electoral repeat, in Junts they limit themselves to responding with "it depends on Sánchez" and remember that the last two presidents were elected in "second round". ERC's tendency at the polls is downward and together, "even when it loses, it loses well". A convergent classic that Junts maintains.
The unknown is the future of the lost votes of independence. The question is who is punished by the repeat election and whether or not these votes can be recovered in a Catalan election to stand up to Salvador Illa's PSC. ERC cannot miss the opportunity, while the leadership of Junts "maintains its position" - leaving the Government, resigning from three deputations...-, with the aim of surpassing ERC and becoming the pro-independence haystack again.
The Catalan legislature will technically run out. President Pere Aragonès maintains regular contact with his former partners, including Puigdemont. After the vote for the composition of the Congress Bureau, the institutional agenda could lead to a meeting. Both are cited on the 21st at the Catalan Summer University in Prada de Conflent. Aragonès would like to link the unity of action of independence in Madrid with the stability of his Government and a commitment of cross-support after the parliamentary elections. And only Puigdemont (and the ballot boxes) has the answer to all the questions.
