The ERC spokesperson, Marta Vilalta, has opened the door this Monday to negotiate a new investiture for Pedro Sánchez, with the conditions that the Republicans already announced in the campaign: end the fiscal deficit in Catalonia, obtain the transfer of Rodalies with the necessary resources and maintain the dialogue so that there is progress on the path of self-determination and the holding of a referendum. Vilalta has stressed that “the independentistas have the key to the future”, since the PSOE will need their votes to repeat the investiture of Pedro Sánchez, and has extended a hand to Junts to carry out a joint strategy and “defend the interests of Catalonia, something that cannot be achieved with the blockade” to the investiture defended by the post-convergents.
Regarding the results of these general elections, Vilalta has had no choice but to make “self-criticism”, in the face of what has been a new bump for the Republicans, who have lost 400,000 votes compared to the November 2019 elections and remain with seven of the thirteen seats they have had in Congress in this last legislature. ERC was the first force in the general elections of April and in the repetition of November 2019, and this 23-J has remained as the fourth force in votes, behind the socialists, common and the PP. “These are bad results, it is not what we expected or wanted,” he said.
However, as usual in assessing electoral results, Vilalta has contained the damage and has attributed the loss of ERC votes, as a first factor, to the “risk perceived by voters in the face of the reactionary wave” posed by the PP and Vox bloc, which has led to “voting for the progressive forces of Spanish obedience”, alluding to socialists and commoners.
Vilalta has also pointed out, and this would be a second factor that has had an impact on ERC’s poor results, that its formation “assumes the cost” of the negotiation strategy and agreements with the coalition government. “We assume the cost of leading and exercising the responsibilities of the country, with the logical errors that we make and that we work to correct,” he assured. In this sense, he has guaranteed that mistakes will be an opportunity for improvement. “With a vocation for constant learning, we will work hard to win back the trust of those who have not voted for us this time,” he said.
And in a message to Junts, he assured that “independence has the key to tip the balance” on the stage drawn by the 23-J ballot boxes. “There are possibilities of building an alternative majority, of progress. And ERC will be there, with the will to agree, to stop PP and Vox and to defend the interests of Catalonia ”, which does not happen, as he has stressed, due to the strategy of blocking the investiture that Junts defends.
