In these last days of July, things have cleared up with respect to the political year to start in September: either Pedro Sánchez makes a move and pays attention to the Catalan independence movement's plans, or he'll find himself forced to call an election and, foreseeably, return Pablo Casado's PP to power in a government, this time, in coalition with Ciudadanos. Against his wishes, it's recently been confirmed that his talks with the independence movement, and especially with one of the actors, PDeCAT, has changed substantially and on the table there's only the prisoners, exiles and a referendum.
Esquerra Republicana and PDeCAT have a blocking minority they're prepared to use. President Quim Torra didn't only arrive at the Moncloa government palace with a bottle of ratafia, but also with an inflexible script of the things which interest the Catalan government after summer. Vice-president Pere Aragonès did more of the same in his meeting with deputy prime minister Carmen Calvo and treasury minister, María Jesús Montero. The Spanish government, pleased with itself because it was attending to the old Catalan request to pass short-term loans which are maturing over the long term through the Autonomous Liquidity Fund, found out in situ that this Catalan legislature isn't about that. This week, conversations with ERC and PDeCAT have cleared up matters: summer homework for Sánchez and the start of a solution or a general election before next year's local elections.
To all of this is added PSOE's need to present a budget which it should already be working on and for which it's lacking support. Unless the two governments, Spanish and Catalan, isolate the need for a budget and give each other one-off support on that question. It's a dangerous move, which neither of the parties wants to go for. In Catalonia, above all, because their ally would have to be CUP. But maybe we'll see sooner than later that PSC1 will offer itself. Sánchez has to hold out any way possible and Iceta has already demonstrated that he can handle himself in any situation.
Translator's note: 1. PSC is the Catalan branch of PSOE, led by Miquel Iceta. Mr Antich is saying that if Esquerra and PDeCAT agree to support a PSOE budget for Spain, CUP might refuse to give them the votes they need to pass a Catalan budget.