Esquerra Republicana wants to avoid the scenario of a last-minute pact for an eventual investiture of the socialist Salvador Illa as president of the Generalitat. If there is no new Government before next August 25, there will be a repeat election and the general secretary of the Republicans, Marta Rovira, has made it clear this Saturday that her bet is not on speeding up the deadline. Rovira has taken advantage of her intervention in the national council of the independence party to urge the closing of “a pre-agreement” during this month of July. And to demonstrate her commitment to exploring the investiture, she has designated four specific teams to advance the same number of folders that she puts on the negotiating table, one of them being singular financing.
“We want to know if there is political will to reach an agreement,” the interim leader of the party summed up at the conclave that the Republicans held this morning and where the regulations of the extraordinary Congress of November were also approved. Rovira’s statements almost overlapped with those of Illa, who at the same time offered “generosity and flexibility” to his possible allies from an event of the Partit dels Socialistes (PSC) in Mataró (Barcelona). From Bolvir (Girona), the general secretary of Junts, Jordi Turull, attacked Illa, considering that he does not defend the interests of Catalonia by privileging the agenda of the PSOE.
The Republicans are thus putting pressure on the PSC to reach an agreement before the deadline for new elections expires. “We don’t like this tendency to negotiate at the last minute, it doesn’t lead to good agreements for the country,” said Rovira in a video conference. He fled to Switzerland to avoid the action of the Spanish justice system for his involvement in the processes and now he hopes that the amnesty will be applied to him. The general secretary has detailed the four folders that she puts on the table in the conversations but leaving all the focus on the economic: her proposal there continues to be the singular financing for Catalonia, in line with the bilateral treatment of the Basque concert but adding a component of interterritorial solidarity. “If we don’t get out of there [el marco común de financiación]there will be cuts,” he predicted.
ERC’s decision is both tactical within a negotiation that was offered at the limit of deadlines and an internal message to its ranks, where a possible pact with the socialists generates division. Rovira has not completely closed the possibility of supporting Carles Puigdemont, founder of Junts, as president. In fact, his proposal has been addressed to both parties in general terms. However, he has explicitly reflected the few options for success that this path has. “The PSC does not clarify its Government programme and Junts does not make its programmes clear to us if Puigdemont returns and achieves the abstention of the PSC”, he said. The three left-wing parties have 68 deputies, an absolute majority, while the pro-independence pact – which also includes the CUP – only has 59 and needs the winner of the 12-M to step aside.
“We want [el preacuerdo en julio] “We need time to debate this agreement internally, whether it really offers solutions for the country or makes it precarious,” explained the Republican, who also has to balance this digestion with the internal struggle for the future of leadership in its ranks. The leadership of Esquerra announced an internal consultation among its bases on the meaning of the vote for the investiture and turning around the historical distrust that a sector of the party has regarding the PSC is one of the tasks that the interim leadership after the departure of Oriol Junqueras must dedicate itself to.
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Rovira also wanted to avoid simply asking for a pre-agreement in the near future and to emphasise his intention he announced that he would reorganise the format of the negotiations. Until now the team was made up exclusively of the deputies Josep Maria Jové, Marta Vilalta, Juli Fernández and a senior member of the party, Oriol López. Now there will be four internal working groups, divided into the same number of folders to be negotiated: individual financing, resolution of the political conflict, national reconstruction and the maintenance of policies implemented by the Government led by Pere Aragonès, an idea that is to be reinforced, as this newspaper reported.
Rovira’s intervention has practically overlapped with that of the leader of the Catalan socialists. Illa has participated this morning in a regional conclave of the PSC in Mataró and from there he has stressed his conciliatory message in order to reach an agreement with the republicans and the comuns. “What is needed now is a space of stability, of tranquillity, to be able to work and focus on the underlying problems that Catalonia has,” he asked. If in ERC the challenge of an eventual pre-agreement with the PSC is to convince the bases, within socialism there is much to do. This week it was again clear that the future of the improvement of financing for Catalonia generates internal clashes and the messages that come from the Government refer to an improvement of the current situation but without breaking the current common regime.
Within the socialists, the idea is widespread that, in order to obtain the necessary votes from ERC for the investiture, it was necessary to give them all the possible room to resolve their internal problems. The request for the pre-agreement, although Rovira has extended it to Junts, directly challenges them, but Illa wanted to make it clear that beyond the investiture he aspires to explore other arithmetic. “The best solution today for Catalonia is the progress pact that we are trying to reach; this does not mean that the rest of the political formations have to be excluded,” he said, referring specifically to Junts – with whom he could also add more than an absolute majority – and the PP.
From the Junts ranks, which also held a national council this Saturday, there has been no direct response to Rovira either. His general secretary, Jordi Turull, has taken advantage of his intervention from Bolvir (Girona) to vindicate Carles Puigdemont’s right to run for office. It is a path with a bizarre point, since it implies that Illa abstained in his favor. The former councilor of the Generalitat has focused his criticism on an Illa whom he sees more concerned with pleasing the PSOE than defending the interests of Catalonia. “The negotiation of own financing cannot be linked to a negotiation about who wants to be president of Catalonia,” he attacked.
The Republicans, also immersed in their internal struggle for the leadership of the party, also approved this Saturday the regulations for the extraordinary November Congress. It is expected that at that meeting the dispute between those who advocate a change of faces and the continuity defended by the now former president of ERC, Oriol Junqueras, will be resolved. On October 7, the internal race officially begins and to formalize lists for the Executive, the endorsement of 5% of the membership will be needed (about 430 signatures, according to the current census). However, the debate on the political presentation will be in February, with there still being time for ERC to regain internal stability after the schism between Junqueras and Rovira, as a result of the poor results of the last electoral cycle.
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