The possibility of an electoral repetition hovers after the complicated arithmetic resulting from last Sunday’s Catalan elections. Given this scenario, the spokesperson for the Catalan Executive, Patrícia Plaja, has urged political parties to reach an agreement as soon as possible. She has also done so, warning that repeating elections in Catalonia would entail an expense of just under 30 million euros.
The spokesperson has not detailed or broken down the items, but has recalled that the elections called for May 12 allocated 30 million euros, so the Government estimates that the figure would be reduced very slightly if there were a new election date.
The sum for 2024 is somewhat lower than that allocated for the electoral contest of February 14, 2021. To define the seats in the Parliament on that occasion, 35.8 million euros were spent. The figure was almost double that of the previous elections, that of December 2017, which cost 19 million euros.
In any case, Plaja has urged the political formations to reach an understanding as soon as possible to avoid both this hypothetical electoral repetition and to extend the “state of provisionality” that a Government that has come into office after the Parliamentary elections last Sunday supposes. “Catalonia does not need to extend the state of provisionality that a functional Government implies and it is important that those who can do so reach an understanding,” Plaja stressed.
The PSC and Junts, with 42 and 35 seats respectively, were victorious, but they have vetoed each other; and ERC, which largely holds the key to tipping the balance, has already repeatedly announced that its role is in the opposition and that it does not intend to invest a socialist president or collaborate in “operations” of the PSC and the post-convergents. With the European elections on June 9, pacts and alliances will be delayed.
It will be from June 10 when contacts will accelerate. The power to convene the constitutive session of the Parliament belongs to the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès. But there is a deadline for that session to be held: June 10, one day after the European Parliament elections. Plaja has not clarified whether it will happen during the campaign or that day, but he has assured that Aragonès will make the decision “with logic and coherence.”
