Comuns Sumar moderates its prospects for the investiture as a result of the loss of two deputies (from eight to six) in last Sunday’s elections. This decline and the configuration of a hemicycle tilted to the right makes them reassess their expectations and, from a clear position in favor of entering the new Government as a condition to cast their votes in an eventual investiture of Salvador Illa, they now pass to prioritize a left-wing government agreement but without insisting on the demand of the coalition.
At a press conference this Tuesday, party spokesperson Joan Mena admitted that they will work for Illa’s investiture, but pointed out the possibility that this could translate into an agreement under “different formulas.” “We want a left-wing agreement and we will prioritize the contents of the agreement. We are in the contents and we do not consider whether or not we will enter the Government,” Mena explained.
Although during the campaign, candidate Jéssica Albiach had conditioned any agreement on sharing executive responsibilities, after deferring the results, the commons initially set the bar lower. The spokesperson has pointed out that although the objective of any political formation is to enter the Government to condition policies, “until conversations begin” with the PSC “we will not know the possibilities” that exist. That is why he has insisted on the “different formulas that would make a left-wing agreement possible.”
Nor do the commons want to renew the conditions that they had established during the campaign to accept this coalition, among which were definitively burying the Hard Rock project in Tarragona, or specific measures regarding housing. The party maintains these objectives but prefers to explore the possibilities at a negotiating table, instead of conveying them “through the media.”
Comuns Sumar warns that there is only one real possibility of government, the one that the progressive forces would allow (along with PSC and ERC), but they are aware of their weight and that the Republicans will still need time to clarify their outlook. On the contrary, they are very critical of the Junts candidate, Carles Puigdemont, and his offer of a pro-independence majority. “Puigdemont should understand that we are in a new stage” and “he is wrong to want a repeat election,” reproached Mena, who even regretted that the former president had not kept his word when he said he would leave politics if he did not win “as he did.” Aragonès has done.”
For the common people, the results of 12-M show three options: a left-wing coalition government, the “asphalt coalition” (PSC-Junts) or an electoral repetition. Those from Albiach consider that stability in Catalonia “can only come from a turn to the left” and will focus on an “agreement with content.”
The party has also made self-criticism of electoral results that are not what it expected. They attribute the decline to three factors: on the one hand, the “polarization” that has occurred in the campaign mainly between PSC and Junts, the concentration of the useful vote around the PSC, and the party’s shortcomings in terms of territorial implementation. In the case of Tarragona, this effect is especially significant since there they have lost the only deputy they had. Along with these factors, the commons admit that the “scenario of fragmentation” that has been experienced with Podemos, as well as the Hard Rock flag, has surely not helped either.
In this case, the commons continue to maintain their position on the matter but admit that perhaps in Tarragona it has not been a mobilizing factor in their favor since in the region there may be other more pressing concerns.