The Government never finished trusting the two deputies of Union of the Navarrese Peoplewhose betrayal yesterday almost brought down the labor reform, and that is why he sought the guarantee of negotiation with his president, Javier Esparza, and, above all, kept an open line of communication with the PNV until a few hours before the vote. The Chief Executive, Pedro Sanchezmade a last effort to convince the Basques that same Thursday with a call at 8:00 a.m. to the president of the PNV, Andoni Ortuzar.
Rejection from your regular partners –CKD, EH Bildu and the GNP– The agreement signed with employers and unions led the socialist part of the Government to seek an alternative sum with Ciudadanos, the PDeCAT, UPN, Más País-Equo, Compromís, Nueva Canarias, the Cantabrian Regionalist Party (PRC), Nueva Canarias and Coalición Canary. Of all these formations, the one who provoked the most suspicion were the two Navarre parliamentarians. Although the PDeCAT He had not yet made his vote public, since the beginning of the week in the Executive they took their support for sure. According to a minister, her spokesperson, Fernando Bel, “He is a man of his word and has never betrayed the agreements he reaches.”
There was no fear in what the four PDeCAT deputies would do, despite the fact that they did not make their vote public until Wednesday afternoon, the day before the validation of the royal decree in Congress. But they did not feel safe with UPN because it is not a regular partner of the Government. they feared they might say yes and drop after the pact, according to a member of the Executive. `
Esparza’s endorsement
In order to minimize risks, negotiations were held at the highest level. The Minister of the Presidency, Felix Bolanosand the Secretary of Organization of the PSOE, Santos Cerdanheld a dinner in Madrid, with the president of UPN, Javier Esparza. Once it was found that he was open to supporting the labor reform, number three of the PSOE continued with the talks. The deal closed on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. UPN would vote yes in exchange for the socialists withdrawing their disapproval of the mayor of Pamplona, the regionalist Enrique Maya, and approving budgetary changes worth 27 million euros.
Very shortly before, the PDeCAT had made its support public. The Government already had 176 yeses against 173 noes. Despite them, during these hours, negotiations continued with the ERC and the PNV. The Second Vice President and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Diazwas the one who tried it with the Republicans, and the socialist bloc -Bolaños, Santos and Héctor Gómez- with the PNV spokesman, Aitor Esteban.
The resignation of ERC
For days, the Socialists had given up convincing the ERC because they saw a change of position as impossible. On January 24 there was a meeting between the usual team of negotiators. Bolanos, Gomez, Adriana Lastra and Maria Jesus Monteroon the side of the PSOE, and Gabriel Rufian, Martha Vilalta Y Josep Maria Jove, from CKD. In that meeting, the Government transmitted that there were no options to touch the text of the labor reform and that, in addition, they did not endorse what they agreed with Díaz if it entailed a modification of complementary legislation.
Both parties were clear at that time that they were not going to understand each other. CKD perceived “zero pressure” of the Executive, which made him think that he was already concocting an alternative sum. And the Socialists were aware that the Republicans were not going to budge from their claim to introduce their own label to the labor reform. PSOE socialist sources confirm that “We were always clear that ERC did not enter”. “You have to know your negotiators,” they say in relation to the experience accumulated in the search for other agreements.
Nevertheless Diaz was stubborn in having ERC and that same Wednesday afternoon he tried to convince the Republican spokesman to attend an appointment at the Ministry of Labor, with the promise that Bolaños would also go to offer guarantees to the pact. But Rufián called the minister and he was not aware of that meeting nor did he see it necessary if no change had taken place.
“Save Garamendi”
But who the socialist bloc did not want to give up is the PNV. The dialogue with both Catalans and Basques is very fluid. Although the relationship with the PNV is less fickle, more stable, and in Bilbao they usually attend more easily to calls for “responsibility”. The government wanted have a mattress in case any vote of the alternative majority failed. If the Basques at least abstained, the risk of betrayal by the two Navarrese deputies was totally neutralized. But not even with Sánchez’s call to Ortuzar was it achieved.
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Very pressured by the majority Basque unions, ELA and LAB, and in a growing electoral rivalry with EH Bildu, the PNV demanded the prevalence of regional agreements to vote in favor. The Government has not been able to accept it, according to the sources consulted, because it had made a commitment to the president of the CEOE, Antonio Garamendi, not to touch the text of the agreement. Executive sources acknowledge that the parliamentary negotiation of the labor reform, the search for votes, has been much more complicated precisely because of this, because it was necessary to “save Garamendi”, who has received criticism from some sectors of the employers for his pact with government.
This has prevented any compensation being offered to the parliamentary groups. At the beginning of the negotiations there were talks between the PNV, ERC and PDeCAT to agree on some minimal corrections to the agreement with the social agents and commit to an affirmative vote. But this attempt, which meant going with a closed offer to the Government, foundered very quickly and the PSOE understood that it needed a different sum than the majority of the investiture. He lit it, among many parties, with the involvement of UPN. This circumstance has almost cost him, were it not for the error of the PP deputy, the repeal of the labor reform.