Despite the satisfaction shown by Pedro Sánchez – “all’s well if it ends well” -, the central government and the PSOE are now facing with concern and high doses of uncertainty the hangover of the heart attack vote that was saved on Wednesday thanks to a battery of counterparts agreed with Junts at the last second. “This cannot be repeated”, warn even leaders of the PSOE, who warn that in this legislature “every vote should not be turned into a Vietnam”, as Salvador Illa very graphically defined it yesterday.
The importance given to the training of Carles Puigdemont is also uncomfortable in socialist sectors. The convulsive parliamentary day, the strategy of legislating through decrees, in addition to the agreement sealed with Junts at the time of discount – of which some of the ministers who will be affected by the agreed measures were not aware -, also takes its toll on the ‘Executive in the form of discomfort caused in other essential partners, particularly Esquerra, which asked for explanations from Moncloa, but also PNB and Bildu. And Podemos poisoned his particular struggle.
The Central Government, in any case, deployed yesterday to highlight the importance of the social measures of the decrees finally validated, and to criticize the PP’s contrary vote. And also to try to lower the scope of the agreements signed with JxCat, or at least nuance the interpretation made by Puigdemont’s formation, who since Wednesday night have not concealed their euphoria and, even, their perplexity at what they have succeeded
The organizing secretary of the PSOE, Santos Cerdán, assured on Monday that, should they manage to reach an agreement with Junts, they would make it public immediately. But the PSOE did not convey, in black and white, which pacts it finally reached with the pro-independence parties, so that it allowed JxCat to have a singing voice in relation to the initiatives at first.
Without a public paper signed by the PSOE – there is one, they assure JxCat -, the first vice-president of the Spanish Government, María Jesús Montero, and the ministers Félix Bolaños and Pilar Alegría tried yesterday to delimit the scope of the measures, which seemed to lower Junts’ enthusiasm by a few degrees.
Thus, the Central Government was warned that the delegation of powers on immigration will be specified in an organic law that will support it. In this sense, the general secretary of JxCat, Jordi Turull, recognized that for now there is only “a political agreement” that had not been reached before and that will be finalized in a detailed negotiation with the socialists. “As for the fine print, we will have to agree”, admitted Turull.
The rule will have to gather the endorsement of at least 176 deputies to see the light of day, as the socialists pointed out. Therefore, the details of this delegation of powers will not only be the result of the agreement between the central Government and Junts, but will also have to incorporate the rest of the groups of the majority of the investiture. “We will have to discuss the scope and the resources”, warned Montero, who pointed out that ownership of the competence in immigration will continue to belong to the State, since it will not be transferred, but will be delegated to the Generalitat.
Turull, for his part, considered that in the delegation of these powers “there are capital issues, in matters such as flows, language and labor issues”. “As a country and a nation, we play a lot on this issue. It is not easy, but we assume the responsibilities. It is a capital issue”, insisted the sovereignist leader, who wants to affect all these areas and foreigner permits.
Another of the controversial measures that have been agreed, the deletion of Article 43 bis of the Civil Procedure Law, “doesn’t change anything”, according to Bolaños, since the jurisprudence on prejudicial questions before the courts Europeans is already very consolidated. Together, on the other hand, they celebrate that at least an instrument is not given to the judges, since – they add – the Supreme Court has not always followed this doctrine.
With regard to the public transport subsidy, the ministers emphasized that the State will continue to subsidize 30%, regardless of whether or not each autonomous community assumes its share of the 20%, as until now. However, it no longer obliges communities to pay the remaining 20%. Before, yes.
Finally, the central government will also not publish the fiscal balances, in the terms in which Junts highlighted it. As Montero explained, the Ministry of Finance “will make the data available” so that any administration or research center can draw up their fiscal balances. “There is no consensus on the methodology”, Vice President Montero alleged.
Be that as it may, the signed document has not transpired and, despite the nuances of Moncloa, there is satisfaction in the ranks of JxCat. They see that there is a part of the story in the punctuation.
