PSOE and PP need Puigdemont, without an expiration date

Make a virtue of necessity, Pedro Sánchez declared a few weeks ago to explain his determination not to break up with Junts if they do not make it impossible. In August, after the elections, both the PSOE and the PP approached Carles Puigdemont's party. The Popular Party wanted this contact to see the viability of the seven deputies of the Catalan independence right supporting the investiture of Alberto Núñez Feijóo. The movements of those days, and the hypotheses of dialogue in the future with the neoconvergents, without deadlines, have been present in the most private conversations of the PP. There were contacts but they did not materialize; Even so, it is difficult to hide positions and projects that are widely assumed and that may need to be addressed in the future, perhaps not distant. This is what has been sealed since February 10, 2024, through considerations from the highest levels of the PP, with express authorization to make them public to a multiplicity of media.

If since Sánchez began to negotiate and seal pacts with Puigdemont to obtain the presidency, the PP has focused exclusively on attacking the socialist leader for “selling out Spain”, now the PSOE is taking its revenge. The PP's intentions, whether they come to fruition or not, have been revealed in the midst of the electoral campaign in Galicia. It is not strange, or, it had to happen, because the amnesty for Catalan independentists has been the central argument of the PP leadership in these regional elections. There are still five days of the campaign in which the PP will try to throw light on these sincere considerations, but which could divert votes from the PP towards Vox and unite the left.

It cannot be erased, however, that three lines of attack by the PP against the Government, for which citizens have been called to demonstrate a dozen times, are only deep-reaching resources for opposition, but which lack intrinsic force. On the one hand, it is now recognized that it is possible to pardon Puigdemont. On the other hand, it is admitted that these grace measures—pardons, but not only—are susceptible to being proposed by the Government. Finally, it is conceded that it will be very difficult to relate those prosecuted by the process to terrorism crimes. The red lines that the PP has drawn and denounces, inside and outside Spain, can be reviewed by themselves.

The elaboration of explanations that qualify all of the above is already underway. The amnesty was ruled out by Feijóo, but not as a concept, but after a legal study commissioned by the popular leader. In 24 hours he rejected it, Feijóo presumes, once he assumed one hundred percent the criteria of the jurists he consulted, who called the measure unconstitutional. But a pardon is possible, if Puigdemont, and the rest of those affected, submit to the judicial process, as is mandatory. The sentences will be followed by pardons, with a PP Government.

If there is euphoria in the PP next Sunday due to the electoral result in Galicia, it is expected that the intimate concerns about Catalonia will fade. The PP wants to believe that there will be no discontent, although there is some uneasiness about not reaching the absolute majority, given the intense rise of the BNG, as reflected in this Sunday's survey of 40dB. for EL PAÍS and SER.

Whatever happens in Galicia, the PSOE, and also Vox, will have recorded in the frontispiece of its speech the open thoughts of the PP on the steps to be taken in Catalonia “for reconciliation.” Yes to the pardons, also facilitated ethically, because the popular people do not believe it is possible to link what happened there with acts of terrorism. Public testimony to the contrary should not be taken too seriously.

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