One of the phrases that has been repeated most in recent days in the circles of Catalan president Puigdemont refers to the way the Spanish Socialists (PSOE) have had of negotiating ever since Pedro Sánchez has been in charge, which one of its leaders has recently transmitted to Together for Catalonia (Junts) when talking about the two negotiations that need to take place: over the choice of the speaker of Congress and over the investiture of a candidate for Spanish prime minister. "It will be at the last minute and as always."
This reflection has been answered ironically from the circles of the president in exile: "At the last moment, possibly; as always, definitely not." What does that mean? That the Socialists can decide the timing, but there will be no blank cheque, no unintelligible agreement that requires three or four readings to be understood. Because the experience of these last few years shows that many things are promised and that, later, none of them reach their destination under the conditions with which they had been agreed.
With nine days to go before the constitution of the Cortes, Pedro Sánchez does not seem moved by the fact that the speaker's position in Congress might elude him, and he carries on with his third week of vacations, the second in Morocco. Meanwhile, People's Party (PP) leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo is doing what homework he can. At the weekend, he forced Vox to publically renounce being part of a hypothetical - and very difficult to form - government headed by the PP president. This Monday, and after Vox's move, the sole representative of the Canarian Coalition has announced that he will support Feijóo, making the numbers a little complicated for Sánchez. Leaving aside the seven deputies of Junts, the photo at the moment is 172 in favour of Feijóo and 171 in favour of the current acting prime minister.
Despite the fact that silence and discretion - quite a novelty in Junts spheres - do not allow us to know when the contacts will occur, the fact that president Puigdemont announced on Sunday via Twitter that he was already in Waterloo is perhaps a sign. The Socialist envoy will have to offer something more than smoke, since, if not, the PSOE will end up losing the speakership of Congress. Either because the post will go to someone from a political party other than the PSOE and the PP, which is the preferred option for Junts; or because, faced with the passivity of Pedro Sánchez, Junts refrains from voting and the result ends up favouring the candidate proposed by the PP.
This is already the third day on which well-informed people have given me the same thought: "Sánchez is making a mistake; he may end up arriving too late."