Among the multiple fronts that must be met for progress towards the investiture of Pedro Sánchez, the acting Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, has clarified today that Salvador Illa is not included in the PSOE negotiating team, made up of seven leaders. The minister was thus responding to the lack of confidence expressed on Thursday by former president Carles Puigdemont, who hinted at his opposition to the PSC leader having a leading role in the negotiation with Junts on the investiture.
Bolaños, who is in Barcelona today and tomorrow, has stressed that the Socialist Party has already made its negotiating team public. “We are seven colleagues who are going to work as a team in these conversations. Our objective is not only the investiture but also to achieve a stable legislative agreement,” he indicated.
The message, therefore, has been directed to Waterloo. Junts has cited a “lack of trust” in the role of the PSC in achieving the mayorship of Barcelona. But it is evident that the electoral future in Catalonia has a lot to do with the struggle between the different Catalan formations in the negotiation. And, therefore, in the attempt to reduce the prominence of Salvador Illa.
In this context, Bolaños has indicated that although Illa is not on the negotiating team, her role is fundamental “both in the present and in the future of Catalonia.” And he has recalled that his contacts with the acting president, Pedro Sánchez, will be constant. The PSOE negotiating team is made up of Bolaños himself, along with María Jesús Montero, Santos Cerdán, Pilar Alegría, Óscar Puente, José Ramón Gómez Besteiro and Hana Jalloul.
As for Santos Cerdán being the one to travel to Brussels to close a possible agreement with Puigdemont, as El País points out today, Bolaños has chosen to indicate that the negotiating team “will work side by side and with discretion.”
The minister and socialist leader has also avoided entering into considerations about the proposal sent by Sumar on an amnesty law. But he has stressed that the document reflects the position of Yolanda Díaz’s party, “but not that of the PSOE.” Given this step by Sumar, Bolaños has indicated that intense weeks of negotiations are coming, which must be carried out under the premise “short step and long view.”
