Andoni Ortuzar, president of the PNV, wanted to celebrate his new pact with the PSOE and traveled to Madrid on Friday to sign it in person with Pedro Sánchez. There, before the press, he left his Basque mark in an image that, with simplicity and precision, defined the legislative period that awaits the socialist leader: “We are all in the same trawler and we have to try not to let the shovels collide.”
The planned final agreement with the PNV and the most surprising one with the Canary Islands Coalition (CC) were concluded on Friday and lay the foundations for the new inauguration of Sánchez as government president next week. Almost four years ago, in January 2020, Congress re-elected the Secretary General of the PSOE to lead the executive in the closest investiture vote in history: 167 yes votes and 165 no votes. Sánchez needed two votes and everyone assumed it would be a short term. Great trigger from the soothsayers: the socialist managed to approve all of his budgets and complete a term of three years, eight months and 13 days, the fourth longest of the 15 that have followed since 1977.
The acting Minister of Finance and Deputy Secretary General of the PSOE, María Jesús Montero, and the Organizing Secretary of the Canary Islands Coalition, David Toledo, with the approval of the investiture. Moeh Aitar
In July, the socialist leader emerged from the elections with an even more complicated outlook. It was not even the most elected force and its fate lay in the hands of a complete unknown: Junts per Catalunya, a party that is on the margins of the Spanish institutions and whose leader is fleeing justice abroad. After three months of uncertainty and the constant threat of a repeat election, promoted by the right in search of a second chance, Sánchez is expected to be inaugurated next Thursday without the need for a second vote. Barring absences or accidents, he will receive 179 votes, 12 more than four years ago. The entire Congress, except PP, Vox and the sole representative of the Unión del Pueblo Navarro (UPN). As Political scientist Juan Rodríguez Teruel remembered in X (formerly Twitter)more seats will support him than Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo in 1981, Felipe González in 1986, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero in his two terms (2004 and 2008) and Mariano Rajoy in 2016.
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The trawler described by Ortuzar will navigate whitewater with a diverse crew on board. There will be blades that are prone to clash because they compete in a similar environment and elections are in sight in a few months, such as the PNV itself and EH Bildu in Euskadi, and Junts and ERC in Catalonia. Forces on the far left and others historically center-right will come together. The predictions once again agree that this amalgamation cannot last long unless, as has been well proven, the prophets with Sánchez are repeatedly exposed to ridicule.
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The long-awaited agreement between the PSOE and the PNV only came about when talks with Carles Puigdemont and his inner circle were finally released in Brussels on Thursday. It was already early Friday morning when an agreement negotiated remotely by Ortuzar and the PNV spokesman in Congress, Aitor Esteban, was concluded with the acting finance minister and deputy secretary general of the PSOE, María Jesús Montero.
The Secretary General of Junts per Catalunya, Jordi Turull, the former President of the Generalitat and Junts MP Carles Puigdemont and the President of Junts, Laura Borràs, in Brussels on Thursday.Europa Press (Europa Press)
With the PNV’s support secured, Sánchez’s inauguration secured 178 yes votes, two more than the absolute majority. But the PSOE made great efforts to add even a single MP with great political value to CC. The Socialists are trying to show that their parliamentary base is fed not only by the “enemies of Spain”, as the right usually calls the independents, but also by forces in moderate positions capable of supporting the government and them at the same time reject amnesty for those accused by the trial, as CC will do. The Canarian nationalists, along with Vox and UPN, were the only supporters outside the PP that Alberto Núñez Feijóo brought with him in his unsuccessful investiture attempt. In addition, they are governing the islands with the pro-popular coalition after agreeing to unseat the PSOE, which won the most votes in regional elections in May.
With this operation, and in view of the right’s rampant offensive against the amnesty project, the socialists are trying to project the image of an isolated PP with ties to Vox. “Faced with those who can only agree with themselves or with the extreme right, we are able to do so with the entire parliamentary spectrum,” boasted Montero after signing the agreement with CC.
During his tour of Madrid, Ortuzar made it clear that the PNV’s relations with the PP had long been broken. The demonstrations in front of the PSOE headquarters caused “horror” for the nationalist leader and confirm this, as he explained, in his party’s decision the day after the election not to negotiate even with the Popular Party as long as it does not do so with Vox break.
The signing of the agreements sparked a morning of satisfied smiles in Congress. The signed papers are full of great intentions, but now we have to see how they are put into action. The first evidence that it will not be easy came very soon: María Jesús Montero quickly rejected the possibility of ceding the economic social security regime to the Basque Country, a competition provided for in its statutes and which Ortuzar had optimistically announced . Likewise, we have to see how far the PSOE is willing to go given the PNV’s intention to enshrine the “national recognition of Euskadi” through a new statute.
Press conference by the President of the PNV, Andoni Ortuzar, on Friday in Congress. Moeh Aitar
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