Pedro Sánchez is once again betting heavily, for now without any guarantee of success, to achieve the validation tomorrow of the first three anti-crisis decrees of the new mandate. The legislature has just started and already seems to be walking on the wire, given the firm refusal of Junts to endorse the precepts with its seven votes. After the emergency meeting held last week in Barcelona between the organization secretary of the PSOE, Santos Cerdán, and the general secretary of JxCat, Jordi Turull, who failed to unblock the situation, yesterday the first vice president of the Government, María Jesús Montero, was , who offered compensation to those of Carles Puigdemont in exchange for supporting the decrees. But Junts did not pick up the gauntlet.
The post-convergent formation demanded that the current decrees be withdrawn and that they be presented again separated by themes and agreed in advance with their parliamentary group, so that the social shield measures are not in danger.
The spokesperson and vice president of the party, Josep Rius, asked for there to be a decree for justice, another for local government and so on in the other matters that are regulated, such as public service, patronage, the workplace or the reform of the Company Law. of Capital, in which JxCat wants tax incentives to be approved for companies that maintained their headquarters in Catalonia in 2017 and those that decide to return, while asking for sanctions for those that do not do so and have their operational center in Catalonia. All this to reverse the effects of the decree of Mariano Rajoy’s government.
In any case, government sources indicated a few weeks ago that this measure, via sanctions, was unviable. Be that as it may, in the investiture agreement signed by JxCat and PSOE it was stated that facilitating the return of the companies would be negotiated.
In addition, Turull’s training also demands that the modification be withdrawn, which, in his opinion, “gives judges a tool to delay” the application of the amnesty and other issues such as VAT on oil being 0% and more resources. economic for some of the modifications provided by the Executive in the three decrees that are now in danger. “Our votes are not a blank check,” Rius concluded.
“We are trying to see if there are other issues that may be of interest to them. As in any negotiation, if there is an element in which it is difficult to reach the meeting point, you have to explore the perimeter to see if there are other issues that can be incorporated,” Montero had said on TVE before the Rius press conference. , although he assured that he had not listened to the socialist vice president.
At the same time that they appeared at the JxCat headquarters, Cerdán himself did so in Ferraz, after the first meeting of the year of the socialist executive, chaired by Sánchez. The Navarrese leader invited Junts to propose these compensations. And he warned that those who announce their vote against the decrees, such as Junts or the PP, will have to explain it to the citizens, especially to the most vulnerable sectors who are, in his opinion, the ones that will be most harmed if the measures fall. .
In any case, Cerdán agreed with Montero that they will continue negotiating with Junts “until the last minute” to try to save some decrees that extend the reduction in the electricity bill and VAT on basic foods or revalue pensions at 3, 8%. “There is still time,” confided the vice president, who attributes Junts’ position to its purpose of “enforcing its votes and its brand,” and gaining “visibility” to “mark differences” with ERC, which did announce its support for the decrees. “We must stop thinking about tactical and partisan elements, and think about the general interest,” demanded the vice president. “This is not the time for short-termism,” Cerdán later concluded.
