“This is completely ruled out”, Pedro Sánchez rejected any hypothesis that the PSC will facilitate the investiture of Carles Puigdemont by abstaining, as the candidate of Junts intends and the leader of the PP, AlbertoNúñez Feijóo, warns.
Before returning today to the electoral arena in Barcelona – already in the pre-campaign of the European elections -, the President of the Spanish Government was explicit: “Puigdemont must accept reality, there is no pro-independence majority in Parliament”, he assured in La Sexta And his bet was forceful: “All roads, in the end, lead to the same protagonist, who is the winner of the elections and who is Salvador Illa”.
“We are in a parliamentary democracy”, claimed Sánchez. “Puigdemont wanted to win the elections and he wanted to add a pro-independence parliamentary majority, and he has not achieved either,” he stressed. “Therefore, it will take him more or less time, but the reality is the reality, and the fact is that they do not give him the numbers to be elected president of the new Parliament of Catalonia”, he said. “The numbers are what they are.”
The 12-M left, in his judgment, several “indisputable” readings. The first is that there is no longer a pro-independence majority in Parliament as it has been until now. The second is that the winner at the polls, Illa, has opted for “understanding, agreement and coexistence”. The third is that “there is a progressive option with a majority of 68 seats” in the Parliament, which consists of the PSC, ERC and the commons. The fourth is that “the right and the ultra-right are still in the minority”.
And the conclusion, he pointed out, is that “coexistence and overcoming conflicts through politics” won on Sunday.
Sánchez added to the possibility that, if he does not succeed in the investiture, Puigdemont will withdraw the support of the seven Junts deputies in Congress, who are essential, like those of ERC, PNB or Bildu, to sustain the legislature. “There is a broad parliamentary majority. But in any case, the plans are different”, he alleged.
“And it is better not to make a mistake”, he warned. In the general elections of July 23, he recalled, “Catalan society was quite explicit, resoundingly in support of the progressive coalition government”. An Executive who promoted “coexistence, normalization and stability in Catalonia”.
The head of the Spanish Government criticized Mariano Rajoy for “avoiding and chronicling” the “serious constitutional crisis” of 2017. And he contrasted it with his “risky decisions”, such as pardons and amnesty, even if they were misunderstood or generate wide social protest, even among the socialist ranks. “We played it, and it proved to be worth it”, he emphasized. “It has had an effect, it has produced results, we were right”, he congratulated himself. “Today Spain is more united than in 2017. Democracy has shown its strength with forgiveness”, he insisted, given the “healing effects” of these initiatives.
Sánchez denounced that now Feijóo “almost misses the process”. As he lamented, “the traditional right has surrendered, it has succumbed to the ultra-right”. “Where did Feijóo get from having copied the xenophobic speech of? Nowhere, there continues Vox”, he replied.
And he warned that the right-wing parties only add up to 20% of the votes in Catalonia: now the PP and Vox, and in the previous regional elections with Ciutadans. “The Catalans with their vote have said enough, we need to open a new era”, he defended. And to Feijóo, “the last speech has fallen to him”. But the PP urged: “What will he do in the investiture of Illa?”.
Because the president took it for granted that “Catalan society would not accept an electoral repeat”. Therefore, he appealed to the “responsibility” of all parties so that there can be a new government presided over by whoever won the elections and who does have the numbers to win his investiture. The only option, in his opinion, is for Illa to be president of the Generalitat.
