“There will be a government in Catalonia and this legislature has more than three years left”, the spokeswoman for the Executive, Pilar Alegría, forcefully concluded yesterday. And, also firmly, he rejected all pressure from Junts candidate, Carles Puigdemont, to threaten the mandate of Pedro Sánchez if the PSC does not facilitate his investiture as president of the Generalitat. “There are issues that, frankly, don’t stick. Nobody buys them. Because the Catalans have spoken with resounding clarity”, warned Alegría.
The Catalans expressed themselves at the polls on Sunday, the spokeswoman alleged, and transmitted a “resounding message” to “open a new era in Catalonia”, after the electoral victory of the leader of the PSC, Salvador Illa. “From here on, everyone is free to say what they want. But the Catalans have been very clear”, insisted Alegría, who ruled out any option of Puigdemont’s investiture.
“The government of Catalonia will be decided in Catalonia”, stressed the minister, just as Sánchez himself had said on the eve, and rejected any maneuver by Junts. “It is clear that there is a winning force, which has concentrated a large majority of support in Catalonia”, pointed out Alegría, with reference to the PSC. And to this party, he stressed, “it is up to him to start the various conversations with the rest of the political formations” in search of Illa’s investiture.
“We have no doubt that there will be a government in Catalonia”, insisted Alegría. “And this legislature has three years to go,” he concluded. In any case, the minister assured that the intention of the Central Executive is to continue dialogue with all the parliamentary forces, also with Junts and ERC, to agree on laws and initiatives that draw a “very positive” panorama for the citizens in the creation of employment, economic and tourism growth and foreign investment.
“The legislature is going very well, in terms of economic growth, job creation and the extension of rights”, justify Moncloa. And they assure that the negotiations for the investiture of a Catalan president will only take place in Catalonia.
In Moncloa, in fact, they do not plan to call new meetings of the open dialogue tables with Junts and ERC until the electoral framework is clarified and the governability of Catalonia is resolved. They consider it logical to suspend these periodic meetings until they know, to begin with, who will be the interlocutors in the two formations.
Alegría invited all the political forces to make a “serene” reading of the electoral results in Catalonia. Also the Popular Party, after Alberto Núñez Feijóo warned that the process is not dead yet because Sánchez, in his opinion, needs him alive to continue governing.
“Let them clarify”, warned the minister before the contradictory speech she attributed to Feijóo and some territorial leaders of the PP, such as Alejandro Fernández or Juanma Moreno Bonilla, who already see the process liquidated. “Those who did not know how to find a solution to the most important political and territorial crisis today continue to have no project for Catalonia”, he criticized. “To the displeasure of Feijóo, Spain neither sinks nor breaks; on the contrary, Spain is advancing, growing and opening a new stage of dialogue and reunion”, he replied to the leader of the PP.
Sánchez himself will be able to say this directly to Feijóo next Wednesday. The Prime Minister will appear in Congress on May 22, at his own request, to report on the latest European Council, on the negotiations on Gibraltar and also on his contacts with different international leaders to recognize Palestine as a State. Although Moncloa avoids confirming it, it is possible that the Council of Ministers on the eve, May 21, will approve this recognition of the Palestinian State.
Sánchez will take advantage of this appearance in Congress to meet, cumulatively in the same session, the PP’s demand for explanations about the Koldo case and the alleged “conflict of interest” they attribute to the professional activity of the president’s wife, Begoña Gomez. “Lies and slander have been published non-stop, and it’s time to stop,” they assure Moncloa.
