The process for Pedro Sánchez to obtain a new investiture as president of the central government, once Alberto Núñez Feijóo’s fails at the end of the month, will look a lot like a dangerous minefield. “Did anyone think otherwise?” they assume in Moncloa. But the leader of the PSOE, who already promised courage, ambition and audacity to achieve it, is very willing to go through it. Even if he is forced to go, clear, with lead feet.
Sánchez himself confided on Monday that the agreement with all the essential parliamentary groups to guarantee his investiture “can be done, must be done and will be achieved”. And in Moncloa they warn that, after listening to and analyzing in detail the speech and the conditions for the negotiation that Carles Puigdemont announced yesterday from Brussels, the optimistic forecasts of the acting head of the Executive continue to be “fully in force”.
The leader of the PSOE, therefore, “maintains his determination” to achieve re-election, without wanting to enter for now, at least publicly, the details of the preconditions for the negotiation proposed by the former president of the Generalitat. “We have an infallible method that has always worked for us: discretion”, they allege to Sánchez’s team, in order not to make false steps and maintain any possible progress in the negotiation, as far as possible, under the radar
For the moment, the expected appearance of Puigdemont yesterday from Brussels did not blind Sánchez’s course towards his investiture in advance, although it showed, as they had already assumed a lot in Moncloa, that it will certainly not be a path of roses
“Puigdemont has not closed any door, so the path to negotiation is open”, the central government and the leadership of the PSOE agree. “Even though everything is very uncertain”, admits a minister. In Moncloa, the intervention of the former president was analyzed in detail, and they appreciated a change of record compared to his recent manifestations. They did not find it “confrontational”, and some even appreciated it as “possibilistic”. They also pointed out that he placed two of his traditional claims on “different plans”: self-determination, unacceptable for the PSOE, and amnesty, in which the Socialists anticipate that they will explore formulas to move towards the de-judicialization of the conflict political, as they already did in the last legislature with the pardons, the repeal of sedition and the embezzlement reform.
Puigdemont, as pointed out in Moncloa, did not renounce unilateralism, but also referred to an “agreed referendum”. In any case, they justify the “maximum positions” of the former president. “No one starts a negotiation renouncing their claims”, they allege. In addition, they consider that his speech was mainly aimed at his own ranks, in view of the split in the pro-independence forces: “Puigdemont has addressed his people”, they warn. In addition, on the eve of Catalonia Day.
In Moncloa, they conclude, therefore, that the path to dialogue remains open and that there is also room for agreement. “There is a way, there is a method and clear interlocutors”, conclude the PSOE leadership regarding Puigdemont.
“We are separated by a world from these positions, which are at the antipodes”, warned about Puigdemont’s words the spokeswoman of the acting central government, socialist Isabel Rodríguez, after the meeting of the Council of Ministers.
But he insisted on reaffirming Sánchez’s road map towards the investiture. “To address this situation, we have a tool, which is dialogue; a framework, which is the Constitution; and we have one goal, which is coexistence”, he stressed.
The minister spokeswoman, in any case, did not want to go into the details of Puigdemont’s previous demands, such as the amnesty law. “Coexistence cannot be achieved outside the constitutional framework”, he limited himself to warning, alongside the acting Minister of the Interior, and magistrate, Fernando Grande-Marlaska.
Despite the forceful reaction of the right regarding Puigdemont’s demands, which also keep sectors of the PSOE on alert, the spokeswoman for the acting Executive reiterated that Sánchez will never exceed the framework of the Constitution, as she assured that he already shows since he arrived at Moncloa in 2018.
In any case, Isabel Rodríguez wanted to convey “a message of reassurance to the public”. “Nobody thinks the wolf is coming anymore. It’s okay to put fear in the body of the Spaniards. This Government, and its president, Pedro Sánchez, has shown that it enforces the Constitution throughout Spain”, he said.
Sánchez, he insisted, “has guaranteed that in Spain today the Constitution is complied with, in all territories”. “With this guide, in accordance with the Constitution, with the basis of dialogue, and with a clear objective, which is the coexistence and progress of Spain and of all Spaniards, and also of Catalonia, is how we face a future legislature” , he replied.
