The Parliament of Catalonia flirts with procrastination. This week the deputies took possession of their seats and have to elect a president of the Generalitat, but summer is upon them with an invitation to take it easy. August 26 marks the deadline to agree on a name that will serve to stop electoral repetition. Josep Rull (Junts), president of the Parliament, begins the round of contacts on Tuesday to evaluate what support the two candidates who have run to govern the Generalitat have: Salvador Illa and Carles Puigdemont. Neither one nor the other see themselves in a position to have sufficient support and Junts and the PSC are fighting a race of brakes. Esquerra’s votes hold the key to unraveling the mess. After the severe defeat it suffered on May 12, the party carefully assesses what is best for it, starting from the idea that there is little to gain, but much to lose. The Republicans distance themselves from the parliamentary caper proposed by Puigdemont and condition support for Illa on Pedro Sánchez accepting a “unique” financing model for Catalonia. The President of the Government knows that the viability of his mandate may depend on this demand.
Marta Rovira, general secretary of ERC and top party official after the resignation of Oriol Junqueras, stated yesterday that there is “no rush” to reach agreements. She warned that the investiture of the president of the Generalitat “is more in Sánchez’s hands than in Illa’s,” reports Clara Blanchar. Esquerra says that, if the Government does not dare to draft a new financing model for Catalonia, the incentives to support the PSC will falter. According to Rovira, unique Catalan-style financing in the form of an economic agreement is “the minimum required.” Shortly after the ERC leader’s statements, Illa picked up the gauntlet and endorsed the necessary improvement in financing: “It is not a privilege, it is a matter of justice.” In fact, the socialist assured that this demand will have support from La Moncloa. “The Government of Spain will help improve the financing of Catalonia,” he added. The possible agreement between PSC and ERC is green, but the Republicans admit that supporting Illa’s investiture implies having a counterpart that cannot guarantee an eventual pact with Puigdemont. .
The PSC displays the numbers to show that there is only one possibility to reach the majority of 68 seats in the Parliament: the sum that a tripartite with socialists, Esquerra and the Commons promotes to make president to Illa. Junts replies that the only “coherent” operation is a common pro-independence front, together with ERC and the CUP. This operation would not achieve a parliamentary majority and for Puigdemont’s presidency to be viable he would need an abstention from the PSC. Illa has ruled it out outright, and the refusal carries an implicit message: he is president or the Catalans will have to vote again in the fall.
When at the end of March Carles Puigdemont announced his candidacy to run in the Catalan elections, he stated that he was going “for everything.” He maintained the same message during the campaign, which he developed entirely in the south of France to avoid the risk of being arrested if he held rallies in Catalonia. A month has passed since the election night that he relegated the Junts list to second place, with 35 seats, seven less than the PSC achieved, and the former president continues to embrace his pre-electoral declaration of intentions. Junts has managed to win the presidency of the Parliament, with Josep Rull, and the “go for it” implies fighting for an investiture that would require, in addition to the favorable votes of Junts, ERC and the CUP, the abstention of the PSC. “I don’t know what head this can fit into,” responded Alícia Romero, parliamentary spokesperson for the PSC. “Don’t fool people,” Romero claimed this week. Salvador Illa himself closes the door to being able to make any concession that paves the way for Puigdemont. “I will not abstain,” he declared Tuesday in an interview in The 2. And she repeated it in up to four languages.
To comply with the Parliament’s Regulations, on June 25 Josep Rull would have to propose to the plenary session a candidate with options to be voted president of the Generalitat. Nobody wants to be the first to take a setback from the plenary session. Puigdemont is also waiting to know what specific effects the amnesty law will have for him. If he still does not have legal protection, returning would imply detention. Raquel Sans, ERC spokesperson, has publicly shown her surprise at Junts’ sudden tactic: “It is difficult to understand that after everything that has been said about Carles Puigdemont, he does not want to face the investiture debate first.”
Esquerra and the PSC agree that Junts is trying to force a parliamentary maneuver that complicates an agreement between Republicans and Socialists to invest Illa. Vote in favor of a president socialist without first having staged support for a Puigdemont candidacy, even if it is a bet with no numerical chances of success, is to lead Esquerra to the abyss of independence reproach.
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If it is found that no candidate has enough support, Rull will dismiss the investiture plenary session without proposing any name. The procedure will not prevent a two-month countdown from beginning to run to find a candidate who can prove the necessary support. If, at the end of August, the Parliament has been unable to elect a tenant for the Generalitat, elections will be called in Catalonia. In public, all parties reject the possibility of returning to the polls. It would be the fifth call in 17 months in Catalonia. Junts points out that it is not afraid of repetition. If by then the amnesty is fully in force, Puigdemont could campaign in person in Catalonia, after seven years of living abroad. In this context, the post-convergent space assumes that new elections could serve to give Esquerra a blow.
Republicans are immersed in a convulsive process of searching for leadership. It is a “complicated moment” to face elections, admitted the party spokesperson, Raquel Sans. ERC has it in its power to accelerate an investiture of Illa or continue to wind up Puigdemont. Oriol Junqueras, who stepped down as president of Esquerra on Monday, has endorsed that his party reaches “reasonable” agreements for the investiture.
The calendar will set the tone and the pace. At the moment, in mid-June, summer still seems like it has to last forever.
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