While waiting for the magnifying glass to decipher the small print, part of the possible allies of the PSOE and Sumar reacted cautiously to the pact between the two formations. Yesterday the Government of Pere Aragonès and the PNB spoke openly about it. The main fear is that the measures will encroach on the competences assigned to the autonomous communities, which they see as likely given that most of them have a social nature.
At first glance and without having studied the document in depth, they also have a fly in the nose because of the possibility that it will have an impact on the coffers of the autonomous communities. With all this prudence, the response of the ERC Government and the Jeltzales was to remember that the investiture depends on their votes.
“We will be very attentive and we will look in detail at the fine print so that there is no attempt to invade powers and that every measure that involves more expenditure for the Generalitat is compensated as it is, accompanied by the necessary funding”, warned the spokeswoman from the Catalan Executive, Patrícia Plaja.
The arithmetic is capricious: the pro-independence vote is necessary today for the acting president, Pedro Sánchez, to re-issue his position. Plaja saw staging in the words of the leader of Sumar, Yolanda Díaz, a few days ago, with which she assured that the PSOE-Sumar agreement was far away.
“It’s an announcement that was taken for granted”, said Plaja, “but it will be of little use if they are not able to close the pacts with the pro-independence parties”, ERC and Junts. And in his opinion, the pact that is far from over is that of the socialists with these two forces. “The Government defends the need to take advantage of the arithmetic that the votes have given us to move forward with amnesty, in the conditions to exercise the right to self-determination and improve the conditions of Catalans”, the spokeswoman stressed. In this last folder, two derivatives: the Government and ERC insist on the integral transfer of Rodalies and putting an end to the fiscal deficit of 22,000 million euros. “Let the PSOE be brave”, warned Plaja.
Suspicions are also being raised at Sabin Etxea, PNB headquarters in Bilbao. The content of the agreement, tilted more to the left, does not convince the Basque nationalists, who made it clear that some of the agreed proposals are not part of their agenda. “We insist on the difficulty of the investiture due to the number of agents involved and that, precisely for this reason, we must be very careful in the agreements and not impose our own agendas that may clash with others”, they pointed out.
The Jeltzales, who will carry out a more “calm and deep” analysis in the next few hours, indicated that the agreement leaves “questions in the air” and specified their concern as to why “some matters may represent an invasion of competences ”, in reference to the agreed proposals in the matter of “health, education, scholarships, care or housing”. They also warned that “part of the language used does not seem to walk on the path of respect for the self-government of the autonomous communities and the development of their statutes”.
Finally, the PNB pointed out that “the so-called banking and energy taxes must respect the Economic Concert and Convention system”, so that “they must be coordinated with the institutions of the autonomous community of Euskadi and Navarre if they want to count on the yes of EAJ-PNB”.
The Jeltzales, meanwhile, continue to negotiate with the Socialists through Aitor Esteban, their man in Madrid, coordinated in this phase with three leaders of the party’s executive: Andoni Ortuzar, Joseba Aurrekoetxea and Koldo Mediavilla. The PNB points out that “an agreement cannot yet be reached” and warns that only “the first step, the simplest” has been taken, for an investiture which, they add, “depends on the Basque and Catalan parties”.
