The vote on August 17 to elect the members of the new Congress Bureau will be decided by just a few votes, according to the Government. Aware that the election of the presidency is very tight, that is, of the vice-presidents and the secretaries, the PSOE held the first face-to-face meetings with its potential allies yesterday in the Lower House to secure a majority in the three planned votes. ERC and the BNG have already gone through the offices of the current Government and advanced that their option is a “progressive” Board. The positions of the PNB and Junts are yet to be defined, both definitive.
Acting Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, ended his vacation and went to Congress this Thursday to give a boost to the negotiations. Together with the Secretary of State for relations with the Courts, Rafael Simancas, they lead the contacts, but yesterday they avoided revealing any progress. “It is essential that we are discreet, responsible and cautious”, said Bolaños.
Simancas did meet with Teresa Jordà, ERC’s number two for Barcelona, ??to learn about the demands of the republicans. The pro-independence parties do not give priority to being part of the Congress Bureau, but rather seek the PSOE to make it easier for them to return to preside over some important parliamentary committee. During the last legislature, ERC chaired the Industry, Commerce and Tourism commission, and in the previous one he chaired the Science, Innovation and Universities committee.
Jordà guaranteed the support of his seven ERC deputies to the PSOE in next Thursday’s vote and advanced that his negotiating position is to stand “on the side of the supposed state progressivism”. Esquerra accepts, therefore, that a PSOE candidate presides over the chamber while waiting to know who the candidate will be. The Republicans, with no interest in presiding over this body. From their position, they consider that regional nationalisms should not be at the head of the Bureau. Thus, the socialists informed them that they plan to come up with a specific name next week. Sources close to the negotiations included the name of the former president of the Balearic Islands, Francina Armengol, as a possible candidate.
The ERC spokeswoman also assumed that the PSOE will “guarantee” that both Republicans and Junts have their own parliamentary group during the next legislature. PSOE sources later added that there will be no impediments to this support, which would leave the mixed group with three formations: the BNG, the UPN and CC.
The votes of the Bureau are still pending the position of Junts, who declined to make statements yesterday. Its deputies, led by Miriam Nogueras, also collected their credentials in Congress, and avoided offering any public statement. Contacts with the PSOE are already being developed.
Jordà did want to appeal to Junts and insisted on the idea that independence has a “golden opportunity” in front of it to assert its positions – both in the negotiations for the Bureau and a subsequent investiture, as for the legislature–. ERC and Junts add fourteen deputies who are not “starting from scratch”, said the republican. “A lot of work has been done in the last four years”, recalled Jordà, extending his hand to the other pro-independence party with which they intend to form a common front to put the Catalan agenda at the epicenter of state politics. “There must be sanity”, he claimed.
Faced with the question of whether the latest resolution of the Constitutional Court – which on Wednesday rejected an appeal for protection by Carles Puigdemont to annul his national arrest warrant – could represent an obstacle in the negotiations to form the Bureau and the next investiture progressives, Jordà was conclusive: “It should not affect”. This is so because he framed it in the alleged “general cause” that the State undertook in 2017 against independence, although he described as “shameful” the fact that the two conservative magistrates who control this first fortnight of August the vacation room of the Court of Guarantees would not even be admitted to the procedure – as has been done until now with everything related to the process – to be debated in plenary, where the progressive group has had a majority since January.
The elected deputy of the Galician Nationalist Bloc (BNG), Néstor Rego, who also collected the credentials yesterday, showed his readiness to support a composition of the Bureau that reflects “the political plurality of the Congress”.
A formation that has not yet declared what its position will be in Thursday’s votes is the PNB. After rejecting an agreement with the PP, its five deputies plan to attend Congress next Wednesday to collect their credentials. EH Bildu, for its part, has set Monday as the date for this procedure that must be completed by its six parliamentarians, although sources in the formation take for granted support for the left-wing bloc. The PSOE would add 166 supports, compared to the 171 yes that the PP has for a hypothetical investiture of Feijóo.
Ferraz has decided to compartmentalize the negotiations of the Bureau and the future investiture that Sánchez plans to attempt, as he advanced in the video recorded in his militancy before the start of the holidays. A week of high tension is approaching.
The lack of seats for a majority in the sum of the PP, Vox, the UPN and CC obliges the popular parties to look for votes or abstentions in nationalist parties in order to gain control of the Bureau and, later, achieve the investiture of Alberto Núñez Feijóo. In this sense, Elías Bendodo, popular general coordinator, claimed yesterday in an interview with RNE that “we need to talk to all” the political parties, but “not to swallow everything”.
When asked about Junts, Bendodo insisted on the PP’s ability to “talk to everyone”, although he clarified that this does not mean “making an agreement with everyone” or swallowing everything. The popular general coordinator assured that “we have not established contacts” with Puigdemont’s party, although he recalled that “the outcome of the investiture will depend on Junts”.
It should be remembered that, at the end of July, the deputy secretary of autonomous and local coordination of the PP, Pedro Rollán, opened the door for the first time to talk with Junts “within the Constitution”. However, this statement was refuted shortly after by Alejandro Fernández, leader of the PP in Catalonia, and Cuca Gamarra, spokesperson for the party in Congress. “We will not have any kind of negotiation with Puigdemont”, said Fernández.
From the Popular Party they are aware that for Feijóo’s investiture to prosper they need the abstention of a nationalist party such as the PNB or Junts, even though the former has ruled out this option. In this sense, Bendodo recalled that “today the PP is four votes or four abstentions” from a majority. “Sánchez only adds up to 121; Nor has Sumar told him yes”, added the popular coordinator.
In the same line that Cuca Gamarra drew on Wednesday after the meeting of the PP steering committee, Bendodo assured that they aspire “to preside over the Congressional Bureau”, which he has given importance because it is “the one that directs the debate”.
The general popular coordinator also hopes, as he explained in this appearance, to “form a government alone, with ministers only from the Popular Party”.
