“I am happy,” Pedro Sánchez has assured on several occasions before the federal executive of the PSOE, meeting this Monday in Ferraz to celebrate the “incontestable” electoral victory of Salvador Illa and analyze the situation open after the Catalan elections this Sunday. Despite the complexity of the scenario for the PSC candidate to win the presidency of the Generalitat, the head of the Executive has shown himself to be “very confident in the governability” of Catalonia. In that there will be no blockade and, therefore, the Catalan elections will not be repeated. Although the process, Ferraz already assumes, will not be quick. To begin with, the socialists, who have warned that Esquerra must be given time to “repose the results” of the scrutiny, and thus end up facilitating Illa’s investiture.
Already before the elections of this 12-M, the leadership of the PSOE stressed that Illa has a free hand to try to achieve his investiture as president of the Generalitat, without any internal interference, despite the impact that a change of position of Junts o of ERC may have in Sánchez’s mandate and in the current legislature in Spain, pending, to begin with, being able to approve new general budgets of the State for next year.
And the spokesperson for the PSOE executive, Esther Peña, insisted on this clear message towards Junts and ERC on repeated occasions this Monday. “We want to make one issue clear from the beginning: the Government of Catalonia will be decided in Catalonia, not in Madrid or anywhere else,” she stressed. “And Salvador Illa has all our confidence to pilot this process,” she assured.
“The Government of Catalonia will be decided in Catalonia, Salvador Illa will be the president of Catalonia and he will lead the negotiations that will make it possible,” Peña insisted. The PSC candidate, he has stressed, is in any case “the only one with real options” to be president and form an Executive in Catalonia after 12-M.
Now, the Ferraz leader has also trusted that the possible agreements that Illa may reach in Catalonia will not dynamit Sánchez’s mandate in Spain, which requires the inexcusable support of Junts and ERC for every step he wants to take. “We understand that the results of these elections will not have any repercussions on governability,” Peña pointed out. “The PSOE reached governability agreements with many parties, also with Junts and ERC. The PSOE complies with its agreements, and I have no doubt that the rest will do the same,” she stated. With a solid argument: “There is no other alternative to President Sánchez.” “Therefore, there is no doubt about the continuity of a Government that is at full capacity and has three and a half years left, with an intense and intensive legislative agenda,” she assured.
The leadership of the PSOE has conveyed its “maximum respect” for the decision announced this Monday by Pere Aragonés that he will not take up his seat in the Parliament. But he has called on ERC not to break the deck. “I am convinced that there are many things that unite us to improve the quality of life of Catalans. Let’s give it time, calmly,” Peña prescribed. “We are convinced that Esquerra will play a decisive role in that dialogue,” she confided, regarding the participation of the Republicans in a process that could lead to Illa’s investiture.
In any case, the PSOE spokesperson has rejected the scenario of a repeat election in Catalonia. With a forceful warning: “Another reading that we can make of yesterday’s results is that those who block are penalized, in all areas,” Peña pointed out. And she has insisted on inviting ERC to dialogue with Illa. “Esquerra undoubtedly has a lot to say, we share many solutions and recipes to improve the lives of Catalans,” she alleged. “And I am convinced that we will be able to reach a satisfactory agreement so that the Government begins to act as soon as possible,” she confided. “You must go. It has to come out, because that is what Catalan society has dictated,” she concluded.
