The president of pro-independence Catalan party ERC, Oriol Junqueras, will this Friday inform the leader of Podemos, Pablo Iglesias, of his party's position towards the 2019 Spanish budget. Sources close to Junqueras have told El Nacional that their meeting will cover a variety of topics, but that if Iglesias asks him if they're planning to vote in favour of the budget, he will be told that their votes are conditional on the Spanish government making "moves" on two key questions: the situation of the Catalan political prisoners and self-determination. ERC's votes are expected to be needed to pass the bill.
The sources suggest that Junqueras could urge Iglesias to ask prime minister Sánchez for prosecutors to lower the sentences they are to ask for in their indictments expected in the next few days.
The meeting will take place this Friday at Lledoners prison. Junqueras has spent almost a year in pretrial detention for his role in last year's independence push in Catalonia. Party sources say that ERC's leader accepted the meeting, requested by Iglesias, as he accepts all such requests, be they from union leaders or representatives of other political parties.
Unlike sources close to Iglesias, the ERC sources say it's not a meeting specifically about the budget, but that Junqueras is prepared to talk about everything. That said, if Iglesias brings up the topic of next year's accounts, Junqueras will present his party's position.
ERC sticks by its conditions
ERC has said on a number of occasions that it won't support the budget "actively or passively" if there are no "moves" from the Spanish government on the subjects of the prisoners and self-determination. They say that Pedro Sánchez has now been in government for some time, but that "all that's improved are the words". As long as this doesn't change, "ERC has nothing to negotiate with Madrid over the budget".
Indeed, this Tuesday, ERC's spokesperson in the Catalan Parliament, Anna Caula, repeated this position and asked Podemos to consider "how they would act if Pablo Iglesias were in prison accused of rebellion". "If there's one thing we're not losing it's bravery; we're working to improve social rights, but also [we remain] rebels in the face of a completely unjust situation; there are political prisoners in Spain, we have to be able to talk about everything on the table," she said.
As for ERC's deputy spokesperson in the Spanish Congress, Gabriel Rufián, he urged Iglesias to "lobby, in a Spanish government office, for the release of nine democrats from a savage, unjust and vengeful sentence", instead of "going to lobby in a cell in Lledoners".