Compromís is to politics as the reed is to botany; it bends but does not break. It seemed that the coalition was, once again, on the verge of breaking, but yesterday’s statements, after the heat of this week, indicate that the formation is far from breaking. Although crises are always more complicated to go through in the opposition (in fact, the anger these days is caused by the need to distribute the few posts after eight years of political bonanza), to neither party (neither to Més Compromís nor to Initiative) is interested in a break.
And even less so now that Sumar’s experiment has not gone completely wrong and the competition to the left of the political board has been diluted with the disappearance of Podem and the alliance with the US on the Díaz platform. A new context that leaves this political space well, which achieved almost 400,000 votes in the general elections and 446,000 in the regional elections.
In fact, yesterday a person in charge of Més showed La Vanguardia his calmness and understood that the Initiative pulse would not continue, while the ecosocialists admitted the need to reduce tension to recover unity of action in the parliamentary group.
It is true that the three deputies from the party that Mónica Oltra once led voted in Les Corts against the appointment of her Més partner, Enric Morera, as territorial senator. Someone from Els Verds joined those votes, while the other environmentalist deputy did support the name proposed by the majority of the parliamentary group.
Despite the tension of the moment, they did not want to give too much continuity to the protest. In statements to the media, Aitana Mas (one of the Initiative deputies who voted blank) wanted to differentiate between organic and institutional issues and assured that the deputies from her party are going to continue working, “supporting the parliamentary group and doing politics”.
But he did censure the “disloyalty” of his partners and wanted to remember that his party maintains its decision to suspend its participation in the Compromís government bodies. Despite this, he expressed his hope that there will be “understandings and agreements” so that this type of issue does not happen again. The Initiative deputy said that it would have to be the direction of Més that “takes the step” to redirect relations.
The group’s ombudsman and leader of Més, Joan Baldoví, picked up the gauntlet and showed his firm intention to “rebuild bridges” after acknowledging that there have been “dissensions” within the coalition. “If I have to cross the bridge first, I will do it,” said the parliamentary spokesman. Baldoví recalled that Compromís has gone through very complex situations and that it has shown “knowing how to rise to the occasion”. Again the reed bowed without breaking.
