The signing of the accord between the Socialists (PSOE) and Sumar to repeat the coalition government of the last Spanish legislature brings Pedro Sánchez closer to a new prime ministerial term, since to his 122 MPs he now adds the 31 of the party led by Yolanda Díaz, who, together with the 6 of Basque independentists EH Bildu, yields the figure of 159 votes in favour, 15 short of an absolute majority. It is an artificial gesture but has a certain importance, allowing the Socialists to show the public some progress in an enormously complex negotiation with the Catalan pro-independence parties as well as giving Yolanda Díaz's group the right amount of prominence, in a political agreement which really presents more than it explains. The two leaders are the opening acts for the real negotiation, since this whole deal with Sumar is futile if agreement is not reached with Together for Catalonia (Junts), the Republican Left (ERC) and the Basque Nationalists (PNV). Of course, Díaz's party shows their muscle as they can visualise that they will have ministers in the next government, something that was not permitted by the Socialists until the last legislature with Pablo Iglesias.
The document signed between the two political forces is a compendium of measures that imply a strong shift towards the left: tax rises, such as that of corporate tax on large companies; measures relating to working conditions, such as a reduction of the working day from 40 to 37.5 hours, and an increase in the interprofessional minimum wage (SMI) that will continue to grow; as well as social measures, like free dental care and 20-week care leave, 8 of which would be paid. Measures that are apparently ecological like the reduction of domestic flights on routes that have a rail alternative and journey time of less than two and a half hours, with the exception of hub airports. Great on paper, but in reality, who has a hub airport? Oh, what a coincidence: Madrid. Who else? Nobody else.
But there are also measures which are strongly populist and, without a doubt, can be criticised, such as free rail travel on Rodalies and a continuation of all the discounts applying to public transport since the end of the pandemic. What Rodalies commuters need is not free tickets, but for the trains to simply work, and to arrive on time. And this can only be fixed through strong economic investments by the government of the day, correcting the historical deficit. Many times Catalonia has asked for the transfer to its control of the infrastructure and has demanded the budget allocations necessary to turn around an operation that is worse than loss-making. I myself have called for this on numerous occasions over the past few years. Considering how calamitous Rodalies is at the moment, I don't know if it would be better, first, to demand a decent service from the Spanish government and then for them to focus on the transfer, when the deficiencies have been corrected. Because what is clear is that whoever owns it, it will be a long time until it works well and handovers must be made under conditions that do not exist now.
The devil is in the details goes that saying, and it applies here perfectly. Offering free tickets is like a carrot that contents many people until they start to actually use the infrastructure, which, moreover, has never transported so many people over so many hours. Thus the measure is of little use to regular commuter users, since all they want is to be able to plan, which is currently impossible. It would certainly be more useful to ask users before resorting to the chequebook and entering a vicious circle in which the only thing you do is fritter away hundreds of millions of euros.
But then again, aesthetics also plays a role in politics and this is almost a textbook case. Once the agreements with Sumar - about which Podemos says it knows nothing - are complete, along with those of Bildu, the next to be tackled will be the pro-independence folders, and probably in this order: PNV, ERC and Junts. The outcome of the match between Pedro Sánchez and Carles Puigdemont remains open, although the passing of the days favours an agreement. As I've always said, several months without getting up from the table only creates a certain climate of confidence. Working discreetly to overcoming obstacles also helps to set it all out in black and white. Skepticism remains, along with real possibilities that it will not come to fruition, but these will always exist until the very last moment.