Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, ERC, assured this September 25 that negotiations with the PSOE on an eventual amnesty for the separatist political leaders who carried out the 2017 referendum are very advanced. The acting president of the Government, the socialist Pedro Sánchez, who seeks to forge an alliance to constitute a majority, did not confirm the announcement of the independentists. For his part, Alberto Feijóo, of the Popular Party, will appear before Congress tomorrow for his first investiture debate.
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This Monday, September 25, the spokesperson for the independence party Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC), Raquel Sans, declared that the negotiations between the left-wing party of the acting president Pedro Sánchez focus on “more technical issues” and that they are already underway. an amnesty agreement for Catalan separatists with the PSOE.
“We are now dealing with more technical issues, which are not simple: the political part has already been resolved”
The spokesperson for the left-wing independence party specified that both sides have already exchanged documents in this regard. However, she added that the two camps have to “address real negotiation” and have to “start walking in relation to the referendum (in reference to holding a new self-determination consultation, one of ERC’s demands to form an eventual left-wing coalition).” “The political conflict still exists,” he added.
Pedro Sánchez neither denies nor confirms the declarations
These statements follow those of the ERC leader, Oriol Junqueras, on September 20, who said that an “investiture agreement must include the amnesty” of the separatists required by Spanish law, for having participated in the organization of the referendum. of self-determination of Catalonia on October 1, 2017.
It is worth remembering that Pedro Sánchez did not confirm the ERC announcement, although he did not deny Junqueras’ statements either, declaring, on the sidelines of his trip to New York for the UN General Assembly, that “the talks may be discreet, but the agreements are “transparent,” he said, while promising to speak “with total frankness” about the guidelines of an eventual PSOE Government.
“Everything I have to say I will say at the moment I am designated a candidate for the investiture by the head of state,” said the socialist, who hopes to renew his role at the head of the Government. Sánchez hopes that his main contender, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, does not get the necessary support to govern in Congress and that this opens the door for him to try to form a coalition.
The indispensable support of the independentistas to constitute a majority
For the PSOE, agreeing on an alliance with the Catalan independentists seems obligatory to form a majority, after the general elections on July 23 did not give any party the absolute majority to form a government, that is, at least 176 seats in the parliament.
Puigdemont: “Today Spain has a problem: either repeat elections or make an agreement with a party that maintains the legitimacy of October 1 and that will not renounce unilaterality as a legitimate resource to assert the rights of the Catalan people”
“Either elections or pact with us” pic.twitter.com/kcunqRlv1m
— EL ESPAÑOL (@elespanolcom) September 5, 2023
For their part, certain independentists requested the amnesty of the separatists who participated in the organization of the self-determination referendum as a mandatory condition to support a new investiture of Pedro Sánchez.
In this sense, the leader of the independence party Junts per Catalunya, Carles Puigdemont, who has been in Brussels for six years as a fugitive from Spanish Justice, declared on September 5 from the Belgian capital that the “total” amnesty is the first condition for his political bench to sit down to negotiate. “There must be a permanent abandonment” of judicial proceedings against the separatists, he said. He also called for a new self-determination referendum for Catalonia.
Marches in Madrid in support of Feijóo, who continues to find himself short of votes
The negotiations between the PSOE and the Catalan independentists are taking place while the leader of the right-wing opposition, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, prepares to appear before the Cortes Generales on Tuesday, September 26, for his first investiture debate.
His political party, the Popular Party (PP), called for marches in Madrid on September 24 to give a boost to the candidacy of the 62-year-old conservative leader. Thus, according to the EFE agency, some 40,000 people gathered on Sunday in the streets of the Spanish capital. Alberto Feijóo strongly criticized the amnesty negotiations between the left and the independentists, to which his party expressed a categorical rejection.
“What no Spaniards voted for, at least 94%, was a change in the constitutional regime. That was not voted on, it is a fraud, (…). “We are not going to negotiate fraud,” he said, referring to the hypothetical path of an agreed amnesty.
However, Alberto Feijóo will appear before Congress without having previously obtained sufficient support to achieve the investiture as the new head of the Government, although the PP was the party with the most votes in the general elections, with 137 deputies. Feijóo obtained the support of the far-right party Vox, with 33 deputies, plus another two from regionalist groups. In total, he has 172 votes in favor, but the rest of the parties have 178 deputies and have already announced a vote against the conservative candidate.
Voting will take place on Wednesday, September 27. If the result is negative, there will be a new vote on Friday the 29th.
If Feijoo’s attempt fails, it would be up to Pedro Sánchez to negotiate to gather enough support to present his investiture.
If none of the parties manages to form a majority, the country will have to organize new general elections to try to overcome the blockade.
With EFE and local media
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