The election of the president of the Parliament is crucial for the future of the legislature and the birth of the new government of the Generalitat. This is the second authority in Catalonia, which chooses the candidate for the investiture based on his chances of success. Therefore, the political color of the president of the Catalan Chamber is relevant, and his election will reveal the existing alliances for investiture and governability because it is usually reached having previously forged minimal agreements.
In democratic history, the presidency of the Parliament has always served as a counterpart in agreements for governability, with one exception, that of the socialist Joan Raventós in 1980, who assumed the presidency of the Parliament despite the fact that Jordi Pujol was the one invested with an agreement with ERC and Centristes de Catalunya-UCD.
Thus, in the last legislature Junts and ERC joined forces to elect Laura Borràs as president of the Parliament even without having closed an investiture agreement, but Borràs appointed Pere Aragonès as a candidate although Illa, who won the elections, expressed her willingness to gain trust of the camera. The agreement between independentists was later confirmed.
On June 10, at the latest, the new Parliament must be formed, one day after the European elections, and by then the pacts should be ready. That day, the president of the institution and the members of the Board, the governing body of the Chamber, will be elected.
Two candidates have expressed their willingness to submit to the investiture, Salvador Illa and Carles Puigdemont, but the absence of post-electoral pacts defined so far leaves the election in uncertainty.
To tip the balance, the parties have before them a prior negotiation in which the election of the president of the Parliament and the composition of the Board that regulates the Chamber is key.
PSC and Junts are willing to retain the second authority of Catalonia. For the former, it serves as a negotiating trump card to try to invest Illa, and also for the latter, who accept the pact with ERC that would allow the PSC to be relegated.
The socialists are betting on a left-wing agreement with ERC and the commons that would add 68 deputies, the strict ones to invest Illa, while the post-convergents want to attract ERC and the CUP to an agreement that would fall short (59 seats), but that , with or without the anti-capitalists, would add up to more than the 48 of PSC and commons.
The election of the president of the Parliament is carried out with an anti-blockade system. In the first round, an absolute majority is required – 68 votes – and if no one achieves it, a simple majority is sufficient in the second vote. In the event of a tie, the candidate from the group with the most deputies is named.
The members of the Board (two vice presidents and four secretaries) will then be appointed. Its function is important: to control the debates and process legislative initiatives, something that was decisive in the years of the process.