On October 3, EH Bildu announced an agreement with the Government to reform the gag law. The surprise was widespread. It is known that the Government maintains fluid contacts with the majority of the groups in the Lower House to discuss different issues, but there was no evidence that negotiations that seemed entrenched like those in the gag law They were about to snow. They were. Mertxe Aizpurua and Jon Inarritu They made the pact public in the Congress of Deputies that same Thursday and on Friday the reform was registered. But the abertzales They didn’t do it alone. They did it together with five other parties, including the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV).
This specific case reveals some clues to understand how Basque sovereigntist formations function in Congress. The negotiation took place in most absolute media silence and, once the pact was reached, the Basque right signed the registration together with the Basque left, in addition to PSOE, Sumar, Esquerra Republicana (ERC) and the Galician Nationalist Bloc (BNG). That certain understanding, based on an eventual legislative harmony and in an apparent pact of public non-aggression, it works jeltzales and abertzales in Madrid.
It also occurs in the opposite direction. A few days before the pact of the gag lawEH Bildu had no qualms in supporting the admission for processing of the reform of the law of the National Intelligence Center (CNI) that the PNV took away from the PSOE ―persecuted by the jeltzales for years― and in February the same thing happened with the Official Secrets Law. Nor are they -almost- ever reproached either on the platform of Congress or in the state media.
The case of ERC and Junts per Catalunya is very different, whose relationship is in one of its most strained moments. Jordi Sarrión-Carbonellconsultant and political analyst, highlights the importance of the political moment that Catalonia and Euskadi are going through to understand the differences. “In Catalonia, there is a momentum of disenchantment of the independence voter for what has been the processes. Therefore, there is less slice of cake to distribute between both formations”. On the other hand, we must not overlook the adventure of Together pel Yes that Republicans and post-convergents shared and the subsequent phase of distancing, which is now at historic highs.
“In Euskadi, on the other hand, we are seeing a constant growth of the independence movement,” explains Sarrión-Carbonell, “and it seems that PNV and EH Bildu have verified that minimize attacks and confrontations is good and electorally profitable.
For its part, Teresa Cigesa journalist specialized in political communication, points out that the fact that in Catalonia there are several parties with a completely independent profile leads “ERC and Junts to try to constantly differentiate“. And he continues: “While Junts wants to demonstrate all the time how the most pro-independence partyERC points out the right-wing policies that Junts supportswhich on many occasions do not have much diffusion in the Catalan sphere.” That is something that can damage the image of the post-convergents, who, as Sarrión-Carbonell points out, want to be a party catch-all.
It goes without saying that Madrid politics cannot divest itself of either the activity of the Basque and Catalan sovereigntist formations in their respective territories or, of course, their particular history of rivalry. It is precisely this path that has shaped the relationships that both parties now maintain in Madrid.
It’s no secret extreme belligerence in which republicans and post-convergents are immersed and it is also not true that this climate of struggle between the two is allowing them take far away negotiations with the Sánchez Government. That is a perspective that even Moncloa sources provide. “Us This escalation never suits usbut it is inevitable,” said a very important voice within the Executive in September, as reported Public.
He was referring to the fact that a race between ERC and Junts to obtain good counterparts in the Budgets – a good agreement to be able to demonstrate in Catalonia its work of lobbying the Government in Madrid – will imply a negotiation in which the Government will have to give up more than you would like. If the amnesty law is counted as a compromise that those of Carles Puigdemont and taking into account that ERC managed to reach an agreement with the socialists on unique financing For Catalonia, the marker of the great negotiating feats between each of the Catalan parties and the State is found one by one. They will break the Budgets.
But before the pressure increases in the negotiation of public accounts, ERC moved again this Wednesday. Republicans registered a new seasonal rental law from the hand of the Tenant Unions after Junts overthrew, a few weeks ago, the same lawbut led, in that case, by Add. Junts argued that it was legally unsafe, that it did not serve to solve the problem and that it invaded powers.
Both those of Yolanda Diaz as those from Rufián reproached the postconvegents for voting against the admission of the proposal for processing and for doing so changing the meaning of your vote at the last minute. Catalonia is especially sensitive to the housing problem and ERC has in it one of the political assets that distances it most from Junts, which is why the parliamentary movement of assume leadership of the seasonal rental law in Congress is quite a order to Junts. Those of Puigdemont will be forced to vote against again, with the wear and tear that this entails with respect to a sector of Catalan voters, or to give in to Esquerra.
Ciges considers that it is possible that this parliamentary and even media fight in Madrid could benefit ERC and Junts “in partisan terms because it enables them to communicate that his training is what he has achieved one measure or another.” In any case, he points out that it would surely be better for them to “negotiate together” or, at least, coexist in a harmony somewhat more similar to that of the Basques if they want to once again forge the idea among their electorate that “you walk in the same direction“. Surely, at the moment, according to the two experts, they are rather pursuing differentiation.
A hot autumn and a decisive winter
What is evident is that both the quiet that are transmitted today by the two Basque parties such as the electricity with which ERC and Junts move have been useful to fill the Madrid-Barcelona and Madrid-Bilbao AVE with triumphs and attractive agreements for their respective electorates.
In any case, it is not ruled out that strategies will change, at least in the Catalan case, during this autumn. Junts has its congress in October and ERC, in November. The case of the Republicans is more extreme because they have to choose who will lead the party in the coming timesbut both formations will redefine their political strategy. There is a feeling in Congress, fueled by what transcends the parties, that the decisive phase of budget negotiation will not be entered into until after the conclaves. Also on November 30, the PSOE has its federal congress.
#ERCJunts #fight #coexistence #Bildu #PNV #ways #relating #Madrid
