Finally, The PSOE and Junts per Catalunya signed an agreement between the two parties this Thursday. The text has four parts of very different nature. A description of your firm’s background basically assumes the story defended by the independentistas about the events that occurred in Catalonia between 2014 and the present, although it also goes back to the Statute ruling of 2010 and even to the Nueva Planta decrees. Curiously, the text – which is an agreement between parties and not a legal norm – eludes other historical facts in which agreements have been sealed, such as the Constitution and the Statute of 1931 or the Constitution of 1978 and the Statute of 1980. No There was no need for a historical reference, but if it is done, it should not be so biased. Something similar occurs in the description made of what happened around the 9-N consultation, of which this Thursday marked 9 years, and of the 1-O votes, with multiple references to the unattended demands but none to the transgressed rules as a presumed response to the alleged lack of understanding.
Secondly, both parties agree on a negotiation methodology, it is understood that between them and not between institutions, with a international mediator and that it must address some issues in which the positions are described as irreconcilable, mainly on the national recognition of Catalonia, the right to self-determination and regional financing (It is curious to ask for better financing from a State from which they allegedly want to leave). This second block is simply the description of the disagreements and the willingness to address them in a certain way. Nothing else. Thirdly, the text includes the transaction, legitimate but transaction: processing of an amnesty law and vote in favor of the investiture of Pedro Sánchez. We still don’t know the specifics of the amnesty. A time frame is outlined, between 2014 and 2017, as well as the preparations and the resulting judicial cases. The most unacceptable thing for any democrat is the allusion to the concept of ‘lawfare’ which refers to the results of the investigative commissions that are launched in Congress and which, it is understood, could give rise to subsequent modifications of the law that has not yet been presented. And the coda of the agreement is an indeterminate participation of Catalonia in the EU and in international organizations and an ode to the stability of the legislature.
The risks with this document for the PSOE are evident: it accepts the independence narrative that many of its bases, also in Catalonia, do not share at all. The risks for Spanish democracy cannot be evaluated until the text of the amnesty law is known. Obviously if this same account of the facts appears there or concepts such as lawfare are referred to, the result will be difficult to fit into the constitutional framework as all the professional associations of judges warned this Thursday. And if that is so, the agreement will not help in any way to overcome the conflict as claimed. The opportunities are few: Junts recognizes that Catalonia’s demands can only be legitimized by the Parliament (they only need to admit that with the necessary majorities) and the signing of the agreement may mean their definitive return to institutional politics. It is that and each one will give it the importance they see fit.