The PSOE is trying to dispel the idea that amnesty is the exclusive demand of the seven deputies of the Junts, the party of Carles Puigdemont. The spokesman for the socialists, Pilar Alegría, justified this Monday in a press conference that his party is exploring the measure because “there are 57 deputies who have raised this issue, which is a grace measure.”
With its accounts, Alegría includes representatives of Sumar, ERC, Bildu, PNV, and BNG among the parties asking for amnesty in Catalonia, added Junts. However, only Catalan independents have made this a demand to facilitate investment in Pedro Sánchez.
“We are in a moment of negotiation where each parliamentary group submits their requests,” he assured. But he warned: “Nothing can be approved that is not constitutional, and the measures and agreements adopted will be in line with the policies we have approved since 2017”, including some “difficult” ones such as the use of Article 155 of the Constitution.
Alegría also took the opportunity to respond to the president of the Catalan Generalitat, Pere Aragonés. In an interview broadcast this Monday on TVE, Aragonés once again insisted that the investment also includes working towards a self-determination referendum in Catalonia.
“The Catalans themselves rejected this formula in a majority way,” he said, pointing to the election results of the last 23-J. In the elections, the ERC and Junts won 14 seats together, where the independence movement was a minority, compared to 19 obtained by the PSOE.
“The formulas that allow us to continue deepening the division and the lack of agreements are not valid formulas,” said Alegría. The PSOE, he insisted, is committed to “agreements, reunion, and coexistence.”
Meet Feijóo
President Pedro Sánchez will continue a round of contacts this week with representatives of all political groups in Congress to try to support the votes needed for his inauguration. In the afternoon, he will meet again with the PP leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo of the Congress of Deputies.
In a very similar way to the meeting held by the two for the investiture of Feijóo, Sánchez will convey to the president of the popular parties the need to change the CGPJ without asking him to vote or abstain.
“We are going to remind you of something very clear,” Alegría said. “Feijóo should have a purple chest for calling himself a constitutionalist, but he has been violating the Constitution for five years by preventing the reform of the CGPJ,” he added.
Nothing clear will come out of the meeting, predictably. The only doubt is whether, after its continuation with the rest of the political formations—the phase ends on Friday—the PSOE will be able to announce the date for the investiture debate, which was delayed due to pressure from Catalan independentists. The limit, yes, is November 27, where, if there is no government, the Cortes will be dissolved and the general election will be called again.
