The negotiations between the PSOE and Junts per Catalunya over the investiture of Pedro Sánchez – after that of the popular Alberto Núñez Feijóo predictably failed on September 27 – are still in the embryonic phase, according to the executive. But the socialist leader and incumbent Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is convinced that he will make progress. “The Spanish have spoken and there will be a progressive government, of course there will be,” Sánchez said this Sunday during a rally in Oroso (A Coruña). How do you achieve it? “We will do what we promised in the election campaign: I said that I would also look for votes under the rocks to continue to pursue progressive policies and ensure equality and harmony between the people of Spain, and we will do.” , he added. The Socialist made no mention of the possibility of passing an amnesty law for those accused of the independence process within the framework of this agreement. This is the main demand of Junts and has been supported by the PSOE up to always flatly rejected the elections on the 23rd -J, but now he is ready to negotiate.
“Peter, do what you have to do. “This party knows how to turn the tide,” said the general secretary of the Galician Socialists, Valentín Formoso, to applause as he gave way to Sánchez at the rally. The incumbent Prime Minister has not commented on the details or conditions of these negotiations, but has taken them for granted. “Feijóo will be opposition leader because there will be a progressive government. That will happen. The PSOE will rule for four more years,” he emphasized. And he once again accused the popular leader of the “huge waste of time” of his investiture attempt, thereby ironicizing the PP’s criticism of Sánchez’s negotiations with the independents: “What is broken is not Spain, but the PP.”
The government claims that in-depth negotiations with Junts will only begin after Feijóo’s investiture session. However, sources from all parties say that there had already been previous contacts. The amnesty is the central element of these negotiations. And the fact that Junts demands this while threatening to save the card of “one-sidedness” for the future – that is, the possibility of initiating another process if he deems it necessary to achieve his goals – is one of the fundamental obstacles . This Sunday, the leader of Sumar and second vice president of the incumbent government, Yolanda Díaz, pointed out in an interview in La Vanguardia that the renunciation of one-sidedness, d is a prerequisite to speak. It is the first time that Díaz has made this condition.
“The agreement must be comprehensive. And there is no room for one-sidedness in this agreement. […] Where there is agreement, there is no room for unilateralism,” says Díaz. According to socialist sources, the PSOE is making the same efforts, trying to persuade the secessionist party to bury the unilateral threat in order to facilitate negotiations. However, Junts leader and former Generalitat president Carles Puigdemont was blunt two weeks ago when he publicly announced his conditions for supporting an investiture: “Junts has not and will not renounce unilateralism,” he said. And on Saturday, after the meeting of the National Council of the Junta, the speaker of the parliament, Míriam Nogueras, warned: “We will not give an inch.” We will not let up. “We will not lower our demands.”
Yolanda Díaz, with Carles Puigdemont and Toni Comín, on September 4th in Brussels. OLIVIER MATTHYS (EFE)
The day before Puigdemont made these statements in Brussels, where he has been on the run since November 2017, Díaz visited him and met with him for almost three hours, regaining the semblance of legitimacy and prominence that he had lost for almost six years had . Junts and Sumar then committed themselves to “examining all democratic solutions to defuse the political conflict in Catalonia.” The next day, Puigdemont presented his “previous conditions” to support an investiture: an amnesty law that would “permanently” put an end to the “legal action” against “the independentists”; a “mediation and verification mechanism” of the agreements and a commitment that the only limit to the pact is “international treaties” (i.e. not the constitution). And he warned that in any case, even if the pact thrives, Junts will continue to hold the “one-sidedness” card.
What influences the most is what happens next. So you don’t miss anything, subscribe.
Subscribe to
Díaz appears to be in favor of approving the amnesty in the interview. “The amnesty is not a law, but it ends in a law. There is a political conflict that can be the subject of a political and social agreement. A conflict that we should never have had to have. And why am I talking about political and social unity? Because entrepreneurs and unions as well as civil society should also be part of this agreement… A comprehensive agreement that would culminate in an organic law. That is the process we can approach,” he says. And he adds: “The agreement must be comprehensive and you will allow me to tell you that unilateralism does not fit into this agreement.” Where there is an agreement, there is no room for unilateralism. When a party sits down to negotiate, it has already renounced unilateralism.”