“ERC, Bildu and Podemos are right in demanding that the repeal of the gag law (…) end once and for all with rubber bullets,” former vice president Pablo Iglesias wrote on Twitter at noon yesterday. “The gag law does not mention rubber bullets once, it is a matter of regional and State police laws. (…) UP has worked to eliminate them, but not achieving it still does not justify four more years of gag ”, replied the general secretary of the PCE, Enrique Santiago, who was the leader of United We Can in the negotiation. This brief exchange summarizes to what extent the fright of ERC and Bildu, like almost every political issue in recent weeks, in the face of the imminent elections and the coming-out of Sumar, has stressed the confederal group.
The deputy of the commons Aina Vidal called Esquerra and Bildu to responsibility so as not to kill the processing of the reform of the law, to the extent that the repeal of thirty long articles of the law had already been agreed. Minutes later, the group’s co-spokesman, Pablo Echenique pointed out to the PSOE – which voted in favor of the reform together with Unidas Podemos and PNV – for not having been more flexible.
The applause of Iglesias for ERC and Bildu and for their vote against that of Unidas Podemos was echoed by the Minister of Social Rights, Ione Belarra: “The PSOE’s closure to negotiations is incomprehensible to me.” Not a word of the vote against ERC and Bildu. A year later, the peripatetic history of the labor reform is repeated in the confederal group, without an Alberto Casero who errs to save the government from itself.
