On one side, the socialists are focused on completing an investiture of Salvador Illa that also supports the legislature of Pedro Sánchez. On the other, Junts’ interest in provoking an electoral repetition that means another extra life for Carles Puigdemont. And, in the middle, Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya licking the wounds of its failure at the polls and waiting to accumulate the necessary courage required to assume the role of arbitrator that the Catalans gave it: or the Republicans participate in a left-wing agreement that makes president to the leader of the PSC, or cause us to have to vote again on October 13. The 12M balance does not offer more alternatives.
The political move is high voltage due to the implications it entails for the governability of Catalonia and Spain and due to the delicate situation of some of its protagonists. Aware of this, at Moncloa they exercise with all possible care a strategy of approaching and seducing ERC that is not easy due to the internal dynamics of the Republicans.
The socialists have been holding top-level talks with Esquerra for days with their sights set on making Salvador Illa president. But these contacts are, according to the parties involved, incipient and fragile, likely to not yet materialize. Mainly, because the digestion of the tough electoral defeat of the Republicans is still going on behind closed doors. And because the vicious circle of competition within the independence movement keeps the breath of Junts very present on the back of ERC’s neck. That’s why Illa still asks for time before trying it.
“I’m not going to rush anyone, I’m going to be very respectful,” he said this week in an interview at the SER Chain in which he wanted to make it clear that ERC can count on all the empathy from the socialists. “What political formation has not gone through difficult times? “I have a lot of respect for this situation,” added the PSC leader.
A “strategic relationship”
The President of the Government has also been very explicit in his recognition of the political and institutional role that Republicans have played in the past and that they must play in the future. “The stabilization of the political situation in Catalonia would not have been possible without the role of ERC. That must be recognized. Without their leadership and commitment there would be no pardons or amnesty. And I want to add that large parties, with roots, like ERC, with more than 90 years of history, and the PSC, must understand each other. The future of Catalonia, and to a large extent of Spain, will depend on consolidating this strategic relationship between the PSC and ERC,” Pedro Sánchez highlighted in an interview in The vanguard.
The president’s words, especially generous in praise towards a parliamentary ally who has been supporting him in Congress for five years, give a good measure of the importance that Moncloa gives to the next steps that the Republicans are preparing to take. Because reaching the milestone of recovering the Generalitat after a decade of processes will depend on the decision they make in the Parliament of Catalonia. But also to a large extent the viability of Sánchez’s mandate.
The president’s team insists on banishing the idea of a new electoral horizon and once again sends a message of a long term after the 2024 election cycle. But the specter of a failure in Catalonia when it comes to forming the Government and of a Electoral repetition in the fall that will once again leave the legislature dead is feared among the socialist ranks as a serious threat to the stability of the Executive.
The early elections of Pere Aragonès on March 12 already disrupted Pedro Sánchez’s plans. The dog-eat-dog competition between some of his parliamentary allies, such as ERC, Junts or the Comuns, frustrated the expectation of carrying out General State Budgets that would have provided a certain robustness to the future of the legislature. Since then, the legislative activity of the coalition Government and its ability to mark the initiative through the Official State Gazette was greatly diminished. And the idea is that an investiture of Salvador Illa with the support of ERC can return normality to all of Spanish politics.
This being the case, the socialists’ offensive of affection towards ERC is incessant. “ERC is a very relevant political formation in Catalonia and now also in Spain as a whole. He has made very notable contributions that were not easy to make not so many years ago. And they have been for the good of Spanish and Catalan society as a whole. From the defense of a different political approach, I show you not only my respect, but also my recognition,” Salvador Illa expressed affection.
In this context, the step forward of the Government and the PSC this week has occurred with the reform of regional financing. The Executive’s approach is part of the investiture agreement signed by the PSOE and ERC. On page 14, that document includes a heading, number four, which is literally titled “Singular Management”, in reference to the financing model. And the mossos, the new judicial bodies, the penitentiary services or the scholarships are listed as chapters for the financial items to be financed.
Autonomous financing
“Whoever has more powers must also have more means,” defended this week the PSOE spokesperson, Esther Peña, who recalled that, in any case, these are one of the commitments made with the Republicans for Sánchez’s investiture. “The reform of the regional financing system is an electoral promise and the unique financing of Catalonia appeared in the investiture agreement with ERC. The PSOE is a party that fulfills its promises and its commitments,” she said, before assuring that any step the Government takes will be, as she said, on the path of “respect for the equality of all Spanish citizens.”
On that point, that of financing, the path is paved with ERC precisely because it is part of an agreement between both groups. But the same does not happen with other allies such as Compromís or Más Madrid and much less, logically, with the PP, which governs most of the autonomies that must endorse the multilateral reform agreement.
It is also not clear what the future of Junts’ support for the Government may be in the event of being out of action in Catalonia, but for the moment the independentistas have already taken it upon themselves to overthrow the step taken by Sánchez regarding financing. Carles Puigdemont assured that linking it with the investiture is “blackmail” and considered his proposal “a scandal” before warning that the President of the Government would have to “answer several questions” if he wanted to maintain his support in Congress. .
“We are not talking about Illa’s investiture yes or no, but rather that this Government and this parliamentary majority have commitments with the different parliamentary forces,” Sánchez responded in Congress to the Junts spokesperson in an attempt to unlink financing and investiture and with the guarantee, yes, that the veiled threats about the support it receives in Congress will remain unchanged no matter what happens.
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