The president of the Parliament of Catalonia, Josep Rull, has called a plenary session for next Wednesday, June 26, where he will make official that there is no candidate for the investiture to preside over the Generalitat. This Wednesday, Rull closed the round of contacts with the representatives of the parliamentary groups and has certified that neither Salvador Illa (PSC) nor Carles Puigdemont (Junts) have so far gathered the support to submit to the investiture plenary session. The deadline to propose a candidate ends on the 25th, but a week in advance Rull already knows that the PSC and Junts have very green agreements with the other forces. Basically, the key lies with Esquerra Republicana, which, if it decided to join a tripartite with PSC and Comunes, Illa could secure the majority of the chamber. Rull has indicated that if August 26 is reached without a candidate with sufficient support appearing, the process will be automatically activated to repeat the Catalan elections on Sunday, October 13.
Rull has appeared publicly to state that the parliamentary act on Wednesday the 26th will be quick. He will grant each party a 5-minute speaking turn to be able to make assessments on an unusual situation in Catalonia: never before has the 10-day period following the constitution of the Parliament been allowed to pass without proposing a candidate for president of the Generalitat. There is only one similar precedent, in 2020, when after the disqualification of Quim Torra, the president of the Parliament Roger Torrent confirmed that no deputy had sufficient support to face an investiture.
Despite the obvious situation of blockade, sources close to the presidency of the Parliament state that Rull’s contacts with political groups open the door to the possibility that an investiture debate can be held before reaching the maximum deadline of August 26. . Illa was the winner of the elections on May 12, with 42 seats, but Puigdemont, who obtained 35 deputies, maintains that he has options to challenge him for the presidency of the Generalitat. “We intend to go to the investiture, but not now,” said Albert Batet, president of the Junts parliamentary group, this Wednesday. He has not specified when the conditions would be met to make his bid for the presidency official.
Salvador Illa, leader of the PSC, has also asked Rull for more time to put together that left-wing majority with the votes of ERC and the commons with which he would reach the 68 votes of the absolute majority. The socialist has informed him “out of honesty” that in no case will his group abstain from a possible investiture session of another candidate in reference to Carles Puigdemont. Junts would inevitably need the abstention of the PSC for it to prosper. “We want to be honest. Let’s not cheat alone,” Illa stressed, warning that he does not intend to broadcast the negotiations with ERC. “We are going to work with discretion, political skill and arguments. And I will not say more,” he stated, ensuring that in any case he contemplates the scenario of electoral repetition.
Esquerra Republicana criticizes the reticent attitude of Junts and PSC in relation to an investiture: “It is irresponsible and a lack of respect for the citizens of Catalonia that no candidate wants to show their face,” said Marta Vilalta, ERC spokesperson. “Gaining time for negotiation is not synonymous with hiding,” she added. Esquerra does not give clues about how the contacts it maintains with Junts and PSC are evolving, but it does emerge that it has left specific demands on the socialists’ table: Negotiation of a referendum for independence; unique financing for Catalonia; protection of the Catalan language and effective deployment of social policies. Regarding the content of the trials with Puigdemont, ERC maintains that the first thing that Junts has to ensure is that it will be able to count on an abstention from the PSC.
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