The Government avoids the clash with Puigdemont and Congress once again postpones the processing of the trust issue

The Board of the Congress of Deputies once again postpones the processing of Junts’ non-legal proposal that requires Pedro Sánchez to submit to a question of confidence. The socialists consider that this proposal does not comply with the law because the Constitution establishes this instrument as an exclusive prerogative of the President of the Government, but after negotiating throughout the week with Carles Puigdemont they avoid the political clash and leave it “pending qualification.” waiting for it to be reformulated.

In the PSOE they fear that a pure and simple rejection by the socialist representatives of the non-law proposal could provoke a whole cataract of angry reactions on the part of Puigdemont and his people. And that would not only dynamit any option to negotiate a Budget, but would have even more implications, such as the blocking of nuclear measures for the Executive such as the reduction of working hours or the announced package on housing.

For this reason, conversations between the leadership of the PSOE and that of Junts have intensified since Monday in search of a solution. As this newspaper has been able to confirm from sources familiar with the negotiation, the proposal that the Socialists have conveyed to Puigdemont’s entourage is to “reformulate” its text, as also stated in the report from the Congress lawyers that it requested in its day the Table.

The idea of ​​this reformulation, according to those same sources, would be to reinforce the “merely and exclusively political” nature of the initiative, in the form of a reproach or demand that the Government comply with the signed agreements. But avoid direct allusions to a constitutional mechanism, that of the question of confidence, exclusively reserved for the President of the Government.

Having completely ruled out the qualification of the non-legal proposition as it is registered, the decision has been to leave it “pending qualification.” According to parliamentary sources, it is not a postponement since the Board has until mid-February to admit it for processing. The limit is set by the date on which Junts has a deadline to defend its initiatives in plenary: the 25th of next month. “There is no problem with continuing to study,” say those sources asked if Puigdemont’s party agrees with this Thursday’s decision.

With this new margin, the socialist sources consulted hope, the expectation is to find a negotiated solution to this latest mess.

Junts, which publicly accuses Sánchez of repeated breaches of the signed agreements, stood out in December with an unprecedented demand: that the president revalidate his continuity in office before the Plenary Session of Congress as a prior condition to negotiating the Budgets. The movement already caught the Moncloa by surprise at the time, which came to consider that it was an overreaction by the Catalan independentists. But in recent weeks they have not stopped feeding the order.

“If it is not processed, we will make decisions and you will not like them,” said the general secretary of Junts, Jordi Turull, this week. Before, Puigdemont himself even warned of “irreversible consequences.” The Government responded to this verbal escalation this Tuesday with something similar to slamming the door. “There is an issue of substance and another of form,” explained the Executive spokesperson, Pilar Alegría. “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,” he claimed. Privately, several Moncloa sources consulted by this newspaper assured that the proposal will not be processed in any case because that would set a “dangerous” precedent, which would call into question the role of the parliamentary groups and of the President of the Government himself, whose functions come “clearly established in the Constitution.”

In a 14-page report that addressed whether or not from a legal point of view that the Junts initiative be admitted for processing, the lawyers of the Lower House ended up washing their hands and passing the hot potato to the parliamentary groups representing on the table. “In view of the existing precedents, it is not possible to extract a univocal line of action on the part of the Board. Starting from the premise that we are faced with a non-legal proposition, the result of the vote on this initiative, if it were admitted and submitted to the Plenary, will have no legal impact on the relationship of trust existing between the Legislative Branch and the Executive. ” noted that report.

The letter adds that, since there are no precedents, “it is up to the Board to establish a criterion, which will probably serve as a reference for the decision regarding the admission for processing of other control initiatives in the future.” Of course, in the case of being admitted for processing, the legal services have already suggested to Junts that they reformulate their initiative. “The parliamentary group that authored the initiative could be asked to reformulate it to reinforce its exclusively political nature.”

Sumar aligns itself with the PSOE

Sumar has finally aligned itself with the decision made by the PSOE, despite the fact that the Socialists’ temptation to overthrow the Junts initiative this Thursday had generated some internal division within the coalition. The relationship with Carles Puigdemont’s people is a delicate issue for Yolanda Díaz, who has active dialogue with them on several issues, including the reduction of working hours, which will go to Congress in the coming months.

On the other hand, this Wednesday some coalition parties interpreted that the best strategy should be to process the initiative, as Compromís expressed in a press conference. “Junts proposes a non-law proposal that would simply imply expressing the political will of the different groups in this chamber. They have no connection of any kind. We do not have to be afraid of democracy, of the debate of ideas,” said its spokesperson in Congress, Àgueda Micó. On the opposite side, the general coordinator of Izquierda Unida, Antonio Maíllo, accused the post-convergents of cheating with the regulations and of “bluffing.”

The parliamentary group met on Wednesday afternoon to try to reach a consensus position on the matter, although early this morning they were still waiting to resolve their position. Sumar’s votes are key in the Congressional Board: his vote together with that of the PP would have allowed the initiative to be processed directly. But before the meeting of the governing body of the Chamber began, the deputy of the plurinational group and first vice president of Congress, Gerardo Pisarello, revealed that they were continuing to study “how this text can be adapted to the regulations.”