Next year’s electoral cycle forces Republicans to concentrate efforts on this 2022
The definition of the limits of the conflict brings out the great substantive differences between the parties
There are four principles that support ERC. Three are in their acronyms: social democracy, republicanism and independence. The fourth is newly minted, from just three years ago, and it is the reality principleadopted when Oriol Junqueras Y Martha Rovira sidelined any debate on the legality and morality, or not, of 1-O to sanction that what was obvious is that had not produced the desired effect in the international community. That same principle is what has made the Republicans and, by extension, the Government, have concluded that 2023as far as the dialog table is concerned, it will be unskillful and, therefore, while waiting for Pedro Sánchez to renew his stay in Moncloa, we must put all the meat on the grill, “we will go deep”, explains a republican voice, and advance as much as possible, in this 2022.
Nor do you have to be Sherlock Holmes to realize that if in this 2022 the socialists They have postponed the third meeting of the table because elections had been called in Castilla y Leónand to add insult to injury, there is still no date not only for this forum, but even for one fully ‘autonomous’ as the Bilateral Commissionit will be worse in 2023. And it is that in May there will be, yes or yes, the municipal and regional elections. Some elections that, in addition to elucidating local power, from which the barons of the PSOE are nourished, will be read as primaries for the general election, which, if the legislature is exhausted, will take place that same autumn. It is better not to throw away the dialogue with Catalonia, a flammable material in the rest of Spain.
Concentrated calendar
In this context, ERC knows that the PSOE will talk little or nothing about an issue that only negatively affects it at the polls. So, in the internal forecasts of the Catalan part, as this newspaper has learned, the calendar has been concentrated in 2022.
The objective now of the republicans is to agree with the central government the conflict definition. After agreeing on the diagnosis, ‘what exists between Catalonia and Spain is a conflict of a political nature’, the struggle, the content of part of the discreet conversations that are being held, is to limit its terms.
Springboard to solution
According to ERC, a good definition of the conflict automatically leads to a proposed solution. And here come the discrepancies. The central government, according to sources from the Generalitat, does not give up in its attempt to “autonomize” the problem. With the ‘reunion agenda’ as a guide, the socialists adjust to investment issues, or new ones like the Catalan. ERC maintains that the problem, the struggle, is about sovereignty. What Catalonia can and cannot decide for itself.
It is clear that if the agreed framework is that of the economic and symbolic mistreatment of Catalonia, the solution that emerges is one. If, on the other hand, it is agreed that the debate is about the sovereignty, is another one. That is the current crossroads.
No guarantees of success
Related news
Will this 2022 be enough to reach substantial agreements? Republican voices point out that it is difficult, but that the window that exists is this and no other. Reality principle again. If in 2023 Pedro Sánchez took over Moncloa again, the window would lengthen and even with the perspective of four years ahead until the next electoral cycle, it could widen. But there is no possible guarantee and the truth is that in 2023, the presidency of the Government could fall to someone who opposes any face-to-face dialogue with autonomy.
All this without having your own Catalan electoral logicwith a Government in which its 50% (that of Junts) not only is he not present at the negotiating table, but continually taunts her. The Republicans are no longer hesitant to show their impatience with the Socialists by repeating the messages they already issued a few months ago. For example, the lack of a proposal for Catalonia by the Government. He said it, in Madrid, Pere Aragones In the past week. she reiterated it Martha Vilalta this Monday after the meeting of the Republican permanent.