The negotiation for investiture of Pedro Sánchez “moves forward”, although neither the acting president nor any of the ministers involved in the talks with his future allies show unbridled optimism these days. The difficulty of accommodating the requests of Junts and ERC, and Sánchez’s decision to want to close a legislative agreement and not only for the day of the investiture, make these negotiations a very complicated mission.
The possibility of approving an amnesty law for the ‘procés’, a demand of the Catalan independentists, monopolized this Thursday the groups of the traditional reception it offers Philip VI in the Royal Palace after the military parade every October 12. Socialist sources assured that Sánchez sees it as essential that in the explanatory statement of the future norm it is made clear that Carles Puigdemont and Junts are committed with “dialogue” and “legal certainty”, that is, they renounce unilaterality. The commitment that those granted amnesty will not repeat the acts of 2017 is considered essential so that the Constitutional Court cannot overturn the norm. The Government of Quim Torra, in 2018, already showed its respect for “legal certainty” in the so-called Pedralbes Declaration that he sealed with Sánchez.
Sánchez does not want to cloud the negotiations and avoids ruling out a telephone conversation with the ‘president’
In the PSOE they admit that Junts has not yet made decisive “gestures” to take it for granted that Puigdemont will end up supporting Sánchez’s investiture. Sources from the socialist leadership assume that all negotiators are “in the liturgy of negotiation,” including Gabriel Rufián (ERC) when they assure that they are not going to grant an agreement to Sánchez for four years, with General Budgets for 2024 included, and that they only want to close the investiture now. The PSOE leader’s fear is that he will be re-elected in exchange for approving the amnesty law and that shortly afterwards Junts and ERC will be able to blow up the legislature. A repeat election in that scenario would be catastrophic for the socialists. For this reason, Sánchez does not want to consider anything closed until everything, including the Budgets, is tied up.
The challenges: Army, ETA, Catalonia
Sánchez defends his decision to resolve the Spanish territorial crisis in the next legislature before his people. He believes that it is the challenge that he has faced as president of the Government, as well as that of Felipe González was to democratize the Army and José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, put an end to ETA. In an informal huddle with the press, Sánchez stressed that at this time several parliamentary groups, in addition to his own, defend the approval of a measure of grace for people who still have pending justice accounts due to the ‘procés’. Sumar, ERC, Junts, PNV and EH Bildu have shown their support for the amnesty.
The acting president did not want to clarify what calendar he has in mind. Whether he will reach the agreement before the end of the month, as Moncloa hinted these weeks ago, or whether he will speed up the deadline to be able to submit to the investiture vote, which ends on November 27.
For socialists it is a advantage that Junts and ERC are negotiating with the Catalan elections on the horizon (they must be held before February 2025) and that savior Illa (PSC) was the most voted in the last elections, in addition to the result of the general elections in which the PSC swept.
Sánchez hinted that he is in charge of the negotiation and was voluntarily ambiguous when journalists asked him, on numerous occasions, if he was willing to telephone Puigdemont and speak directly with him. He did not rule it out, although he had many opportunities to do so, showing his willingness not to cloud relations. “We are in full negotiation, we are in full negotiation,” he repeated.. The general secretary of the PSOE said that he meets “with the parliamentary groups”, although he shrugged his shoulders when he was reminded that he spoke a few days ago with Oriol Junqueras, leader of ERC, despite the fact that he does not have a seat in Congress. He also clarified that the relationship between the PSOE and the Catalan Republicans is different from that maintained with Junts until now.
The huddle with Sánchez occurred a few minutes before the first of Eleanor of Bourbon at the October 12 reception. The Princess, in a uniform cadetaccompanied by her mother, Queen Letizia, chatted animatedly with journalists for a few minutes.
Feijóo: “Boos are a classic”
On behalf of the PP, the president, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, attended; the general secretary, Cuca Gamarra, and the 12 regional presidents that the party has after its victory in the May elections. Shortly before leaving the Royal Palace, Feijóo denied that his party had encouraged the boos that Sánchez suffered during the military parade. “It will be a joke. “They are a classic in this act, although perhaps this time they have been a little more,” he said, in reference to the open negotiation with the independentists. “There is not a single leader of the PP who has organized or commanded,” he justified.
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Shortly before, the acting president had complained that Vox and PP, with leaders who avoid criticizing or directly promote some of the slogans used in street protests – it was heard “let Txapote vote for you”; in the presence of the Kings even—, contribute to the current tension. Sánchez believes that institutional respect “should be above.”
In the middle of the political offensive that the PP maintains against a possible amnesty, with communities like the Region of Murcia that have already announced that they will appeal against the law that is approved, Feijóo affirmed that his party will use “all the mechanisms of the rule of law” to stop or reverse it. The Galician leader left the event accompanied by the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso.