The PSOE gains time with Junts to face the negotiation of the Budgets

The predictions were wrong once again. There will be no break with Junts. Or at least, not in the short term. Because the PSOE did not overturn its non-legal proposal in Congress to urge Pedro Sánchez to submit to a question of trust and because the leadership of the Catalan independentists, with Puigdemont at the head, will come out this Friday in Brussels to demand compliance of the signed agreements but not to blow up the bridges. And that, in the face of such a precarious parliamentary situation, already represents a respite for the Government, which remains clinging to the purpose of promoting the negotiation of the General State Budgets.

The Congress Board, which already postponed its decision on the processing of the Junts proposal before the Christmas holidays, put it back in the drawer this Thursday. It did so with the votes of the representatives of the PSOE and Junts in the governing body of the Chamber and after days of intense negotiations between the socialist leadership and that of the Catalan independentists in the search for an agreed solution that would avoid a total clash.

And this despite the fact that several ministers expressed during the week the Executive’s explicit rejection of the qualification of an initiative that they consider unacceptable in the Moncloa and among the socialist ranks from a merely formal point of view. Because the constitutional mechanism of the question of confidence is the exclusive prerogative of the President of the Government and because they believe that it would set a dangerous precedent that would alter the rules of the parliamentary game.

“I think it is quite common sense that a question of trust is a prerogative that the President of the Government has and that, therefore, in the Congress Table we cannot process that non-law proposal that, furthermore, has no other type.” of effect beyond appearing to join the powers that the President of the Government himself has,” said the first vice president, María Jesús Montero, in an interview on Canal Sur this Thursday.

The spokesperson for the Executive, Pilar Alegría, was also emphatic about this in the press conference after the Council of Ministers. “There is a theme of substance and another of form,” Alegría explained. “In form, because it is an exclusive prerogative of the President of the Government, and in substance because for what? The Government fulfills its commitments to all groups.”

But the negotiation with Junts intensified in the last hours to try a way that would deactivate without too many consequences the last obstacle placed by Carles Puigdemont in the path of Pedro Sánchez. In the Government and in the Socialist Party they are convinced that, despite their speech and their orders, the Catalan independentists are not about to blow up the legislature because their hypothetical rapprochement with the PP is short-circuited by Vox’s dependence on Feijóo’s party. . And that, therefore, there is a real margin to sit down and negotiate the next General State Budgets.

From Ferraz Street’s direct dialogue with Puigdemont, it was concluded days ago that an explicit rejection of his non-legal proposal would be interpreted as an outrage and would have political consequences. And not only with regard to the Budgets but to any step that the Government intends to take in the coming weeks in Congress, such as the reduction of working hours or the package of measures on housing.

In Sumar, in fact, news also came from Puigdemont’s entourage about the political consequences that his representatives on the Board would have to position themselves against the non-legal proposal. After reaching an agreement with the Ministry of Economy, Yolanda Díaz’s absolute priority is to promote the reduction of working hours, for which she necessarily needs the votes of Junts in Congress. Díaz and the unions have been working for months to obtain the support of groups such as the Catalan independentists or the PNV. And if the PNL had been knocked down this Thursday, the possibilities of cooperation with Junts would have been non-existent.

During these conversations between the PSOE and Junts, the possibility of reformulating the non-legal proposal was also raised, as the congressional lawyers pointed out, to “reinforce the purely political approach” without referring to the constitutionally regulated mechanism of the question of trust. But the final decision was to postpone its processing again.

That decision has to do with parliamentary times, but also political ones. Junts does not have space in Congress to present an initiative until the Plenary Session on February 25, that is, until almost a month and a half from now. And that is a margin that the PSOE considers sufficient to reactivate and channel the pending negotiations that Puigdemont counts as non-compliance, such as the delegation of powers in immigration matters or the use of Catalan in the European Parliament.

The leader of Junts has summoned the entire leadership of his party in Brussels this Friday and will appear before the media. After warning of “irreversible consequences” for the Government if its proposal is overturned, the panorama has changed with the decision of the Board to give more margin. The pro-independence sources consulted now point out that this Friday “nothing will be broken”, although the former president of the Generalitat will warn Pedro Sánchez, once again, that he is the one who has the upper hand in the legislature. And to keep it standing, therefore, it must fulfill its pending commitments.