Catalans voted on Sunday but the political scenario will not become clear for a few weeks; On the immediate horizon are the European elections on June 9. It is difficult to address alliances for the new legislature. For now, the only thing clear is that both Carles Puigdemont, Junts candidate, and Salvador Illa, number one of the PSC – winner of the election night with 42 seats – want to star in an investiture debate in the Parliament.
The former Catalan president, who came second in the elections with 35 deputies, made his intentions clear yesterday in a press conference in Argelers: to recover the relationship with Esquerra and try to be invested with a simple majority in the second vote, with more votes for favor than against, an operation that requires the participation of a third actor who abstains: it is the PSC.
This formula that JxCat wants to explore, already exposed in the campaign, according to the independence leader, would allow the creation of a “coherent” executive. In this equation we must take into account that Pedro Sánchez’s Executive depends on the seven votes of Junts in Congress.
Thus, the idea of the leader of JxCat is to form a “government of purely Catalan obedience”, “that works” and “with conditions to continue standing up in Madrid”, according to the former president. “It is not done, far from it, but we have to try and for my part it will not work,” said Puigdemont, who trusts that the agreement between the two pro-independence forces will be easier with the current result – Junts has three seats, up to 35, and ERC loses 13 and remains at 20 – than with the previous scenario, in which there was a technical tie between both.
Puigdemont maintained yesterday that he “potentially” has more chances of being invested than the first secretary of the Catalan socialists. “There is more parliamentary strength in a government headed by us than in one headed by Mr. Illa,” stated the former president, who explained that the sum of Junts and ERC is “minimum” 55 seats, 59 if the CUP is for the job, while that of socialists and commoners is 48 deputies. However, – he admitted – “this scenario is still premature” and “there are still many days left.”
As he did in his first assessment of the results, on the same night of the elections, Puigdemont reiterated yesterday that the distance between JxCat and the PSC is no different than that which exists in the Lower House between Pedro Sánchez’s PSOE and the PP. by Alberto Núñez Feijóo. “And Feijóo does not govern,” added the former Catalan president to justify his proposal.
In his speech, the post-convergent leader also pointed out that if there is a repeat election, he, who would be the candidate again, would have “more options” given that he could participate in the debates and campaign in person in Catalonia for the first time since 2017. However, , Puigdemont sees this scenario as “a bad idea.”
In any case, to be a candidate in a debate in the Catalan Chamber, the Junts leader must have the complicity of the presidency of the Parliament, which will be elected next June. Illa already tried to be a candidate in 2021 and the then president of the Chamber, Laura Borràs, leaned towards Pere Aragonès.
Be that as it may, Puigdemont reiterated yesterday that he will return to Catalonia for the first investiture debate and ruled out changing his strategy in Madrid if in the end there was a tripartite of PSC, ERC and Comuns. On the other hand, if the socialists choose to seek the support of the PP and the abstention of Vox, the scenario changes and Junts’ support for the PSOE in Madrid, according to the post-convergents, would not make any sense.