Not much is missing but the most complicated part is missing. This is how the sources from the negotiations between the PSOE and Junts at the highest level summarize the exact point at which the talks are about a political agreement that allows Pedro Sánchez to be sworn in as president again. It is an open secret that the nuclear issue of this agreement is an amnesty law whose content, according to the same sources, is advanced although not yet finalized. But in the meantime, in Ferraz, they are hastening to get other important support, such as the PNV, which has already been agreed according to socialist sources.
The socialists and the Catalan independents of the Junts decided to leave the most thorny part of the negotiations for the last, and thus be able to advance the technical progress of the amnesty law, as happened in the recent week. The negotiating teams are now focusing on the details of a global legislative agreement that goes beyond the law, and where they are faced with the need to find language that allows the two parties, so far at odds, to protect themselves. conventional, because of its implication, historical.
This negotiation took place in the shadow of the failed investment process of Alberto Núñez Feijóo and under conditions of prudence in which the two parties conspired and which allowed the work to be carried out without many surprises, even if the noise outside was very loud in It primarily considers the independence resolution of the Parliament requesting that the Government take steps towards self-determination.
That chapter of the resolution that shows the way to a referendum led to an immediate and strong reaction from the PSOE and became, in the opinion of all the protagonists of the negotiations, the time of the greatest anxiety to date. However, the work plans continue their course, and the will of both parties to find a political solution to the conflict in Catalonia with an inauguration and legislature pact, remains intact, in the opinion of that negotiator.
Some of them point to the role of the ERC in these weeks as the main source of noise in a game where Puigdemont, against all the odds and the opinion of the leadership of the PSOE and Sumar, remains firm in the commitment which was given at that time. for traveling this path of political negotiations with respect for the established rules of the game and with the true will they reach a successful conclusion?
This undoubted prominence of the leader of the Junts undermined the role of the group of Oriol Junqueras, who saw their leading position in Catalonia from the last legislature relegated. In the partisan competition for hegemony in Catalan politics, the main actors in the negotiations have put the key to the behavior of the ERC in recent weeks, taking their independence demands beyond the Junts.
This Catalan rivalry is one of the points highlighted by the PSOE as a clear risk factor in the final stage of negotiations. In that context, the Minister of the Presidency and the trusted person of Pedro Sánchez, Félix Bolaños, met on Friday with the right hand of Oriol Junqueras of Esquerra, Josep María Jové, in a hotel in Barcelona.
The Basque flank, guarantees stability
Although the main focus of the negotiations continues and will continue in the coming weeks in Waterloo, Ferraz did not neglect the remaining open channels of communication with other important interlocutors. Bolaños is in charge of negotiations with the ERC, whose group of interlocutors is led by Jové, one of the politicians who will benefit from the future amnesty law.
The ERC’s conditions for investiture include amnesty, that the dialogue between the governments continues, and that Aragonès can propose self-determination as a solution to the conflict. In addition, Esquerra considers that there should be agreements on two “management” issues, such as the poor state of Rodalies (the Renfe commuter service in the community) and the constant underfinancing suffered by the Generalitat.
In the meantime, the investiture becomes clearer for Pedro Sánchez on the Basque flank. With the six deputies of EH Bildu guaranteed from the day after the election, as they explained, not to contribute in any case to the assumption of a PP government with Vox, it is the PNV that is in the bag -ohay weeks raised his hand to ask. more attention from PSOE.
During his visit to Zarzuela Palace last week as part of a round of consultations with the king, the spokesman for the Basque nationalists, Aitor Esteban, avoided confirming to the king that his party’s votes were guaranteed for Pedro Sánchez. However, only 48 hours ago he assured that “the ball is in the game”, about the progress of negotiations with the PSOE. According to sources in the socialist leadership, the PNV has already privately confirmed their favorable vote for the investiture during these negotiations. If we consider the influence of government officials In the Catalan independence movement, everyone agrees that Sánchez’s re-election is closer.
