Government and Junts approach positions, but the Table of Congress is still in the air

The intrigue will last until the last breath. The Courts that emerged from the elections of July 23 were constituted at ten in the morning this Thursday without there being any certainty of who will take control of the government bodies of Congress, the first litmus test to find out if Pedro Sánchez he will be able to build a new majority that will guarantee his investiture. The Catalan independence movement, and very singularly Junts, its most inflexible sector, are decisive for the left to take control of the Table and until the last minute it remains unknown what its position will be. In the last few hours, optimism has advanced in the ranks of the acting government and its allies, as it has been verified that positions have been approached in the negotiations with Junts, according to Executive sources.

The final decision is made by Carles Puigdemont’s party, which has summoned its executive for eight in the morning, just two hours before the constitutive session of Congress begins. In Junts it is taken for granted that the meeting will serve only to ratify what the former Catalan fugitive from Belgium has decided. In the last hours, the efforts of the Executive and its allies have intensified to try to convince Junts not to allow the right to take control of Congress, which would be interpreted as the early end of the legislature and the passport to an electoral repetition. The official negotiation is led by the acting Minister of the Presidency, the socialist Félix Bolaños, but also the second vice president, Yolanda Díaz, has been involved in contacts at the “highest level”, as has the leader of the commons Jaume Asens, with a very good relationship with Puigdemont and his circle of trust.

The rapprochement of positions, the same sources pointed out, has allowed the Junts demand for an amnesty for the independentistas who have pending cases due to the process to be put in the background and focus on other demands, such as allowing the use of the co-official languages ​​in Congress, according to the sources consulted. Sánchez sent a first signal to the pro-independence supporters this Wednesday morning in a speech in the lower house before socialist deputies and senators, in which he announced that he will take advantage of the EU presidency to introduce Catalan into “community institutions”, Galician and Basque.

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The gesture was considered insufficient by the independentistas, who recalled that the Government had already promised the same a year ago at the dialogue table with the Generalitat. Junts’s position has also had the side effect of raising the bar for ERC requests, which warned that his group’s support for the socialist candidate to preside over Congress, Francina Armengol, cannot be taken for granted either.

Without yet knowing if he will have enough support to maintain control of the Board, the acting president returned this Wednesday from his days off and announced to the socialist parliamentarians his willingness to repeat the “progressive government.” The PSOE leader devoted most of his speech to harshly attacking the PP for claiming its right to govern as the list with the most votes on 23-J. Sánchez went so far as to accuse him of “putting pressure on the head of state” for his intention that the King appoint Alberto Núñez Feijóo as the first candidate for the investiture.

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The Socialists wanted to stage the atmosphere of euphoria that they have been experiencing since election night, despite the uncertainty about the immediate future. They received their leader with a huge ovation, and Sánchez spoke at all times as if he were the winner of the contest. “They wanted a plebiscite and they lost it,” said the acting president in his analysis, the most extensive to date in public, of what happened in the last elections.

Faced with this, Sánchez returned to one of his favorite images from the last campaign, “the dark tunnel” that PP and Vox would embody, presented again as a single entity in the presidential speech. The PSOE leader alluded to the “regression of rights” in the communities and municipalities where the two formations already govern together. And he accused the PP of ending up blending in with the “ultra-right”. “Abascal wanted to change the PP from within and he did not succeed, but now he has succeeded from outside,” he stated.

His attack on the PP was constant and devastating. “Since the elections they have been in a state of shock, because they were victims of their own propaganda,” he shot. “They have blown up all the bridges with any party beyond Vox,” he insisted.

Sánchez was especially caustic when attacking the continuous invocation of the PP to be recognized the right to govern for having been the most voted in the elections. “They have a long way to go to choose which European right they want to look like,” he said. “For now they must accept something as basic and as legitimate as that in Spain the one who has the most support governs.” There he expressly invoked article 99 of the Constitution, which establishes that it is the majority of Congress that chooses the head of the Executive, and redoubled his attack on the PP: “This is not the time to pressure the head of state or magic cabals. It is time for parliamentary democracy”. PP sources deplored Sánchez’s words. “It will be a joke, it’s amazing,” said sources around Feijóo, reports Virginia Martínez.

The other great ovation from the Socialist deputies and senators came when their leader announced his desire to reissue the government of the last four years. Previously, Sánchez had conveyed the feeling that he takes it for granted that he will achieve it, as when he called on the PP not to “question the legitimacy” of the future Executive by insisting on the thesis of the most voted list.

Beyond the announcement about the use of the co-official languages, there were no more messages for the independence movement. Yes, it has been, in any case, the election of the former Balearic president Francina Armengol as the socialist candidate to preside over the Chamber. Sánchez introduced her as “a woman of strong character and strong convictions.” She also had loving words for the outgoing president, Meritxell Batet, and for those who will continue as spokespersons in Congress and the Senate, Patxi López and Eva Granados.

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