With amnesty or without, with budgets or without… Together or without. “The length of the legislature is not decided by any political group. The duration of the legislature is decided by the President of the Spanish Government and that is why we will govern for three and a half years”, the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, stated definitively yesterday to Ser.
Pedro Sánchez, they assure the Executive, is not giving up any battle yet. But they also warn that the president does not in any case plan to dissolve the Courts and hasten a new general election in June, when the European elections will take place in turn. “No, that depends on the boss, and the boss pushes ahead”, they corroborate. And so it was clear to them when Sánchez left the chamber on Tuesday, with the noticeable displeasure reflected on their faces after Junts voted against the Amnesty law, which leads to another month of negotiations before the norm , if the agreement is renewed, it can be voted on again in Congress.
The Spanish Government does not put its hand in the fire in front of the position of the formation of Carles Puigdemont on the new general budgets of the State for this year. “Let’s see how they breathe”, they allege. But in the Executive they try to preserve and keep on the surface, whether yes or not, the course of the legislature, still new. With or without budgets.
Junts’ decision to extend the amnesty process, in any case, also complicates and delays the planned schedule for the publication of new public accounts – for which the competition of Puigdemont’s formation is equally essential -, which guarantee political and economic stability in Sánchez’s new mandate.
The forecast of the Executive, until Junts consummated its vote against the Amnesty law on Tuesday in Congress, was that the new pardon measure would be definitively approved, despite the delay imposed by the PP in the Senate, in the first week of ‘April. A date that was thought to coincide in the calendar with the approval by the Council of Ministers of new budgets that, after their parliamentary processing, would receive the green light already in June.
The Executive assumes that this calendar is now up in the air, waiting to see how the negotiations with Junts are renewed. The first vice-president of the Spanish Government and Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, insisted yesterday that she is not throwing in the towel. “The will of this Government is to approve new public accounts”, he emphasized to TVE.
But he came to recognize that the position of Junts can complicate, or even dynamit, this plan. “It is still premature to know what approach Junts per Catalunya will take”, acknowledged Montero, who reiterated his desire for dialogue.
But he also warned: “Let’s not forget that the budgets are in force, they have been extended since the beginning of the year”. The 2023 accounts, which the Spanish Government managed to approve for the third consecutive year in the previous legislature by an absolute majority, are currently still in force, once they were extended on January 1.
And if there is no other choice, these budgets can continue to be extended until 2024, because the Executive affirms that Sánchez will not dynamite a legislature that took so much time to put in place, thanks precisely to the agreement with Junts on the amnesty . Although Montero did not want to advance events: “Everything – he accepted – in its time”. Nor is he already in a scenario of total rupture with Junts, since he pointed out that there is still a “will to dialogue” on both sides.
But the vice-president also forcefully defended the position of the Spanish Government in the face of Junts’ demand for a “comprehensive amnesty”. “Not every amnesty text is constitutional”, he warned. And maintaining “legal certainty” in the rule, he assured, is “essential”, so that it can then pass the filter of the Constitutional Court or the European authorities.
Montero, however, trusted that the talks with Junts would be resumed: “There must always be room for negotiation, when there is a clear desire for dialogue on both sides there are always conditions to be able to continue incorporating questions”. “We trust that JxCat will reflect”, he insisted.
But Junts doesn’t slack off either. The general secretary of the pro-independence party, Jordi Turull, seemed to be wielding his threat again yesterday of “here’s a cat, and here’s a dog, and here’s the story already gone”, when he saw in check the legislature if the Spanish Government does not comply with their demands. “If the PSOE does not move and does not want there to be a comprehensive Amnesty law, for everyone, and of immediate application – Turull warned RAC1 – it is because it does not want to comply with the Brussels agreement” . In other words, what allowed Sánchez’s investiture. And until this issue is resolved, he pointed out in reference to the State budgets, “we cannot consider taking the next step”.
