The investiture of the next president The Catalan government’s decision to vote in Catalonia depends, to a large extent, on the will of Esquerra Republicana. The party, which is in the last minute of its mandate at the head of the Generalitat, holds the key to deciding whether to support a PSC majority in the Parliament, through a tripartite coalition with the Comuns, or whether to join the pro-independence front, with Junts and the CUP, to block Illa’s investiture and bring closer the repeat election in Catalonia. Talks with the PSC “are lively” and are progressing “at a good pace,” said ERC spokesperson Raquel Sans on Monday. In a long press conference, where she received a barrage of questions about the scandal of the defamatory posters that were commissioned from within the ranks of ERC to link the Maragall brothers with Alzheimer’s disease, Sans revealed that contacts with the socialists are “fluid.” He also pointed out that the Republicans are keeping other avenues open, “we are not closing the door to talking with Junts,” he said, but he has demanded that the post-convergent party, before asking for support for Carles Puigdemont, make sure that the PSC will pave the way for him: “We have said from the very beginning that the arithmetic makes it necessary for the PSC to abstain.” Any agreement that the ERC leadership may reach with other parties must be ratified by the membership.
Esquerra maintains that its responsibility is limited when deciding whether Catalonia has president or if it is necessary to call elections again on October 13: “All the pressure is on ERC but the polls have given the PSC and Junts the responsibility of finding agreements,” Sans clarified.
Regarding the negotiations with the PSC, ERC insists that there are “four fundamental issues”: resolution of the Catalan political conflict through a referendum; protection of the Catalan language; deployment of social policies and the redesign of the financing model through an agreement that allows the Generalitat to collect 100% of the taxes generated in Catalonia. According to Sans, this last point of the negotiation is the most advanced.
The spokesperson’s statements reveal that ERC’s rapprochement with the PSC is at a more advanced stage of maturity than a possible understanding with Junts in the Parliament. ERC is taking a similar position to that of the CUP weeks ago, when it called on Puigdemont to stop “fantasizing that is not feasible.”
PSC candidate Salvador Illa won the elections on 12 May with 42 seats, seven more than Carles Puigdemont won. The PSC argues that the only sum that guarantees a majority in the Parliament is that of a tripartite agreement between PSC, ERC and the Comuns, while Junts replies that the “coherent” majority is that of the independence movement. The sum of Junts, ERC and CUP remains at 59 seats, nine short of an absolute majority, so Puigdemont would need an abstention from PSC deputies to be elected. president. An unviable possibility, Salvador Illa has advanced.
Puigdemont left Spain in 2017 to avoid being tried and has pledged to return to Catalonia if there is a plenary session to elect him, whether or not he is the candidate. In an interview with the Here Catalonia Speaking at the SER, the president of the Catalan Parliament, Josep Rull, has assured that Carles Puigdemont “will not be arrested” inside the Catalan chamber. He has indicated that the Catalan Parliament has a protocol in force for this type of case and he will personally ensure that it is “fully complied with”. “The police, as long as I am the president of the Catalan Parliament, will not come in to arrest or detain anyone. And if they have to do so, the first person they will have to arrest is me”, Rull has defended.
What matters most is what happens closer to home. To make sure you don’t miss anything, subscribe.
KEEP READING
A delegation from Esquerra met with Puigdemont in Waterloo (Belgium) on Sunday, within the framework of a meeting of various sectors of the independence movement to address the situation of judicial uncertainty left by the Supreme Court with its resolution last week, which conditions the deployment of the amnesty law. Sans has denied that at the meeting Puigdemont demanded that ERC not support Illa’s investiture. Likewise, the Republican spokesperson has denied that the single list demanded by Junts, in the event that there is a need to go to a repeat election, is a possibility to be taken into account: “ERC is not in favour of the single list, we are different political options.”
Internal investigation into defamatory posters against Maragall
Esquerra has commissioned an internal investigation to determine who is responsible for the case of the defamatory posters against Ernest Maragall and his brother Pasqual, during the electoral campaign for last year’s municipal elections. A verdict is expected to be handed down next Friday to help shed light on a case that is getting muddier with each passing day. The alleged person responsible for the campaign, Tolo Moya, the party’s communications director, will be questioned this week, along with other people who may have had responsibilities in the party’s communications area. Raquel Sans has indicated that an internal investigator, a member of Esquerra’s legal team, is in charge of conducting the investigation of the case. He is called “compliance officer” and will make his report available to the party’s ethics committee. “The membership is angry,” Sans has acknowledged.
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
_
#ERC #negotiations #appoint #Illa #fluid #progressing #good #pace