The negotiation for the investiture leads the PSOE negotiators to strike a balance to convince and woo both Junts and Esquerra at the same time, ensuring that the agreement with one does not prevent the agreement or provoke the other. The acting Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, is one of Pedro Sánchez’s trusted men to pilot the conversations with the Catalan parties to try to tie his investiture before the end of the month of November and this Thursday he met with leaders of both pro-independence formations at the 28th Nit de l’Empresa of the Catalan employers’ association Cecot, held in Sant Cugat del Vallès. Among others, both the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, and the general secretary of JxCat, Jordi Turull, were present.
In his speech, Bolaños wanted to wink at both parties, at a time when the Republicans warn that the course of the negotiation so far is not as expected, while Junts maintains the silence that was decreed after last month’s electoral event. July and, therefore, uncertainty. The minister has highlighted the dialogue table between governments of the last Spanish legislature – the first meeting was in Sánchez’s first term, but the forum was not consolidated until 2020, with the new legislature – and which the Republicans want give continuity if Sánchez is finally re-elected as president. In turn, the socialist leader, who in Moncloa has been the main person in charge of the Catalan portfolio this last year, has called on Junts to “take advantage of the opportunity” and “open a new stage” among those who start from different positions. An allusion received coldly by the post-convergents.
Thus, Bolaños has highlighted, among other actions, “the launch of a dialogue table between governments” which, as he said, “has facilitated the search for political solutions that attempt to achieve a broad social and parliamentary consensus.” . “The solutions were also the fruit of an agreement between different positions that decided to look their interlocutors in the eyes, try to understand their reasons and commit to something where everyone felt comfortable. Interlocutors with an antagonistic life history, conflicting and different political positions,” continued Bolaños, who has equated this dialogue forum with the restitution of the Generalitat and the recognition as president of Josep Tarradellas, the approval of the Constitution, “which guaranteed institutions specific to Catalonia”, the agreement for the Statute of 1979 or the pacts on the linguistic model. “Transversal pacts that made Catalonia better,” summarized the socialist leader, who was able to talk with Aragonès throughout the event as well as in a room where the political leaders were received, apart from the rest of the guests from around the world. business and economic.
Likewise, the socialist minister has advocated opening a new stage, a message with which he intended to challenge JxCat. “We have a great opportunity to open a new stage, in which the search for agreements between different parties will continue to be the priority of the Government of Spain, as has been the case since Pedro Sánchez was elected president in 2018,” he highlighted. “Now it is time to take advantage of the opportunity responsibly, open a new stage and look to the future, the best of futures,” continued Bolaños, who is trying to incorporate the post-convergents into the cause of the investiture. In the section of motivations for this he has highlighted the return of companies and investments to Spain, among other aspects. “We will consolidate the policy, the best policy, that of understanding between different people,” he concluded.
At that time the minister addressed both political representatives and businessmen. “The Government will be present encouraging Catalonia to have more business fabric every day and, therefore, more opportunities,” he concluded.
In any case, the head of the Presidency has warned that to bring the negotiations and the legislature to a successful conclusion there must be “courage, responsibility and a lot of good sense” while at the same time prescribing discretion for the negotiation. “Nothing big in politics is done quickly or with noise. Nothing great in politics is done without work, a lot of discreet and effective work. But I assure you that it will be worth it, because we are talking about an agreement that guarantees the best future for Catalonia and we will do it with dialogue,” said Bolaños, who spoke for a while with former president Artur Mas at the end of the event and also Greeted the president of JxCat, Laura Borràs. At the beginning, he coincided with the president of the Parliament, the also post-convergent Anna Erra.
“Dialogue between different people, dialogue with society, dialogue with social agents and dialogue with companies that create wealth and prosperity. “Whoever uses the word, who opts for dialogue, uses the most powerful of tools to transform society: politics with capital letters,” Bolaños declared before the Catalan business community.
Aragonès, who was in charge of closing the event, has picked up the gauntlet that Bolaños has thrown down and has pointed out after denouncing the situation of the Renfe commuter trains and the “chronic and unjustifiable” fiscal deficit, that “it is necessary for dialogue between different ones is followed by a commitment to end the fiscal deficit and a commitment to the transfer of Rodalies.”
“We have shortcomings especially in Rodalies as a result of decades of disinvestment. And we know that mobility is managed much better from proximity,” he noted. “Companies and workers make a fiscal effort that should lead us to a better welfare state than we have,” the president continued, denouncing what he considers a “drain” of resources and a fiscal deficit that “harms citizens and the competitiveness” of the Catalan economy.
Aragonès, according to consulted sources, has taken advantage of Cecot’s act to tell Bolaños that the negotiation is not progressing as it should in the three portfolios that the Republicans put on the table for Sánchez’s investiture: amnesty, self-determination and fiscal deficit and transfer of localities.
At the event, which was held for the first time in Sant Cugat del Vallès instead of Barcelona or Terrassa, there were several political leaders. In addition to the leaders already mentioned, there were the Ministers of Business and Work, Roger Torrent, the Minister of Social Rights, Carles Campuzano, and the Minister of the Interior, Joan Ignasi Elena, along with members of the lower government; the head of the opposition and first secretary of the PSC, Salvador Illa, deputies of the Parliament and Congress of various formations, such as the leader of the Catalan PP, Alejandro Fernández; the Government delegate in Catalonia, Carlos Prieto; the leader of the post-convergents in Barcelona, ??the former mayor Xavier Trias, the leader of JxCat in the Congress of Deputies, Míriam Nogueras, along with other parliamentarians, as well as some mayors from the Vallès area. But he was not the only former president who has attended the Nit de l’Empresa, former president José Montilla was also present.
In the event, the mayor of the Valais city, Josep Maria Vallès, acted as host and opened the parliaments. Sant Cugat del Vallès is the main council that heads JxCat after the municipal elections last May.
