The XV Catalan legislature will begin on June 10 with the constitutive session of the Parliament born of the elections of May 12. This was communicated yesterday by the acting president, Pere Aragonès, to the president of the Catalan Chamber, Anna Erra, and to all the heads of lists of the formations that have obtained parliamentary representation. With every intention of avoiding interference, the Parliament will be constituted the day after the European elections, which are on 9-J.
The choice of the date, communicated yesterday by the spokeswoman for the Government, Patrícia Plaja, after the meeting of the Executive Council, was taken for granted. June 10 is “the last day within the legal deadline” to start the legislature and the only possible date that does not overlap with the European election campaign. In this first plenum, the seven positions of the Bureau of the Parliament will be elected: the presidency, the two vice-presidencies and the four secretaries, and after ten working days the first investiture debate will have to take place, on June 25 , which, in addition, sets the deadlines for an eventual electoral repeat. If a second investiture vote is needed, it would be on June 28.
In this situation, the groups have begun to organize themselves and make the first contacts to negotiate the composition of the Board, which could give clues about the outcome of the investiture.
The socialists are planning to start the first talks this week, at least with the formations they prefer: ERC and the commons. Salvador Illa admitted yesterday that the negotiations on the Table will be the first step to get the support for the investiture, although he remarked that the presidency of the Parliament must correspond to the party with the most weight in the Catalan Chamber in the face of the claims of other pro-independence formations.
The PSC is ready to negotiate, but they think that it is not in ERC’s interest to get the presidency of the Chamber if they intend to be in the opposition. A republican presidency would demonstrate the existence of an alliance with the socialists, which for the other parties would be easy to extend to the legislature. Apart from this, the Bureau “must be representative of the plurality of the Parliament”, pointed out Illa yesterday in an interview on RAC1, without ruling out the presence of the PP.
Illa only plans, for “consistency”, to be president with the votes of the ERC and the commons, but he wants to govern in a minority and practice variable geometry, also with Junts and the PP, for “broad country agreements” on issues such as education, language, health and infrastructure – the expansion of El Prat airport is at the top of the agenda.
For the time being, the PSC and ERC gathered the deputies elected to the Parliament yesterday – Junts gathered them together last week in Perpignan – but discretion will be maximum. “Now is the time for political office”, said Illa to announce that he will meet with all the political forces, except for Vox and Aliança Catalana.