President Pedro Sánchez is not guaranteed the support of the Left for his investiture. “Absolutely not”, said the president of ERC, Oriol Junqueras, yesterday in front of the lions’ door of the Congress of Deputies, after meeting with the groups of the upper and lower chambers of Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya.
Esquerra’s vote, he then added, “will depend on the attitude of the PSOE and the candidate when it comes to siding with the public, on issues such as the financing of public services, health, transport, the railways and also in the restoration of justice, which has been perverted”. In this sense, Junqueras stressed that the conclusion of the investiture debate of the candidate of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, revealed that the popular leader did not want to “side with the citizens” in terms of social, territorial policies and justice
Junqueras’ allusion to the perversion of justice referred to the amnesty. “No one should be condemned or persecuted for something that is not a crime, because the calling of a referendum is not in the Penal Code, that is why we are in favor of amnesty”, he indicated. But he did not introduce more pressure in the negotiation and avoided drawing red lines or establishing deadlines regarding the processing or approval of an amnesty law. He insisted that the situation is contrary to justice and that “the sooner this injustice is resolved, the better.” the negotiation is progressing, he said, but the pact “is far away”.
He was also careful in the nuances when talking about the aspiration to hold a referendum on self-determination – expressed by the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, during the general policy debate in Parliament – and from his words can deduce that ERC’s aspiration does not include unilateral actions, but pacts recognized by everyone: “We are in favor of being able to exercise the right to vote with maximum recognition by all parties”, he said when asked about the referendum, and he added that Esquerra “will not give up negotiating a referendum in Catalonia”. negotiate
Regarding the PSC’s refusal to support the Government’s proposed resolution, Junqueras limited himself to underlining that the Catalan socialists “will know what they are doing and whether it suits them to vote against this proposal or not”.
Junqueras reappeared in Madrid in the middle of the negotiation process of an eventual amnesty for those affected by legal cases arising from the process of the investiture of Pedro Sánchez, and he did it to cool the expectations of an imminent resolution of the pact for the investiture , warmed yesterday by the conviction expressed both by President Sánchez and by his acting second vice-president, Yolanda Díaz.
