The pact has four key points: the amnesty and the dialogue table; the figure of a kind of ‘mediator’; the transfer of Rodalies to the Generalitat and, finally, the forgiveness of the debt
More than three months after the 23-J elections, finally ERC and the PSOE reached an agreement this Thursday so that the seven Republican representatives in Congress vote ‘yes’ to the investiture of Pedro Sánchez. The pact has four key points: the amnesty and the dialogue table; the figure of a kind of ‘mediator’; the transfer of Rodalies to the Generalitat and, finally, the forgiveness of the debt. With this agreement, Esquerra brings the re-election of Pedro Sanchezwaiting for that Together also manage to complete the negotiations with the socialists, currently running aground due to one point in the amnesty law.
1.Amnesty and dialogue table
The text sealed this Thursday by the president of ERC, Oriol Junquerasand the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, does not include specific details of the amnesty, which will be known when the law is registered. It does make it clear, however, that the “culmination” of dejudicialization will be done “through the approval of a law” that will aim to “procure full political, institutional and social normality.” It is an amnesty “for all those retaliated against without exception,” he defended President Pere Aragonès this Thursday at an event in Barcelona.
What is this amnesty for? Well, it must be the “essential requirement” to “face a dialogue and a negotiation.” Here the PSOE admits again that there is a “conflict over the political future of Catalonia”, but avoids that the agreement reflects that it must be resolved with a referendum, as ERC would like.
They have also agreed resume the dialogue table that Republicans and Socialists agreed in exchange for the investiture of Pedro Sánchez in January 2020. The text limits the negotiation “between governments”, which leaves out Junts per Catalunya, although it suggests that these delegations – which in principle should only be of councilors and ministers – can be expanded if there is agreement between these two parties. It is, in short, an open door for Junts to be part of, although it will hardly be effective because the post-convergents have always been skeptical. The draft also speaks of “periodic meetings” of the dialogue table -without specifying the calendar- and that the eventual agreements “may be endorsed by the Catalan people“.
2.Mediator
In parallel, ERC and PSOE also create another negotiation space between “both parties” that will have the function “of accompanying, verifying and monitoring the entire negotiation process and the agreements reached.” And to do so, the figure of a kind of ‘mediator’, as Junts per Cataluya requested in its conversations with the socialists. Although it has not yet been announced who it will be, the text specifies that “it will be appointed by common agreement” and that it will be a person “of recognized prestige to carry out said tasks.”
The text positively values the collaboration between the two parties during “the first phase of dialogue”, especially regarding the process of dejudicialization, as well as “in the defense and promotion of the Catalan language” and the “progressive normalization of political and institutional dialogue” .
3. Transfer of Rodalies
One of the most complex parts of the negotiation has been the Rodalies portfolio. The agreement finally includes “completing and expanding the comprehensive transfer” of the service, although he does it with small print. There is no mention of specific resources and not all lines are included. At the moment, the sections of infrastructure that will be transferred are the Maresme line (R1), the Sant Vicenç de Calders line (R2) and the Vic and Puigcerdà line (R3). From here the door is left open to “possible future transfers.”
The text establishes the creation of a new company, Rodalies Catalunya, owned by the Generalitat -in a majority- and also by the Spanish Government. The president of said company will be elected by its board of directors, although the Government will have a “casting vote”, and will have a “collaboration and cooperation agreement with Renfe” to ensure the “labor mobility” and “acquired rights” of Workers.
The transfer of Rodalies It is a historic demand of the Generalitat. There was a first partial transfer at the end of 2009 negotiated between the Government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (PSOE) and the Government of José Montilla (PSC). Although it was then presented as a “historic” pact, it was immediately seen as insufficient from Catalonia because it did not include trains, tracks, or catenaries.
4.Debt forgiveness
Finally, the last leg of the agreement is the improvement of the financing of the Generalitat. It is done through the forgiveness of 15,000 million of the debt acquired by the Generalitat with the State through the Autonomous Liquidity Fund. This is 20% of the total. In total it will mean a saving of 1,300 million that the Government should have paid in interest. Today, Catalonia wins,” defended the president of ERC, Oriol Junqueras. The Spanish Government’s intention is for this condonation to be extended to the rest of the autonomous communities.
In addition, the agreement includes that, during the first quarter of 2024, a bilateral commission will be held between the State Government and the Generalitat Government to address what the financing of Catalonia should be like to guarantee “the financial sufficiency of public services.” of Catalonia”. In short, it will be studied how Catalonia could improve its resources, but its application is not guaranteed.
Finally, it has been agreed to “deepen the shared governance system” in terms of infrastructure, so “will systematize the new management encomienda system“, which was already agreed upon in the General State Budgets of 2023, and which will allow the Generalitat to materialize those State investments that “are not critical for infrastructures of general interest.”