Up till now, the silence has been deafening. Parties and candidates involved in the negotiations for the formation of a new Catalan government have remained tight-lipped about just what is going on. Thus, while most eyes are on the campaign for the European elections on June 9th, the more discreet political focus is on the constitution of the Bureau of the Catalan Parliament, which takes place just the day after Europe goes to the polls, on Monday June 10th. However, this Wednesday the leader of the Catalan Socialists (PSC) and winner of the elections, Salvador Illa, stuck out his head to criticise "those who want to create blockages and not respect the results of the election". "To those who want to block and complicate things, I think they're making a mistake. Everything that moves away from a scrupulous respect for what the public said is taking the wrong path." Illa's words elicited the reaction of the general secretary of Together for Catalonia (Junts), Jordi Turull, who held up a mirror to Socialist's arguments through a post on X.
"Illa uses the same arguments that Feijóo made against Sánchez", said Turull, in reference to how the Socialists formed a majority to block the largest party, the People's Party (PP), from governing at Spanish level. And closer to home, the Junts politician also reminded Illa of the agreement made by his own Catalan Socialist party with the conservative PP and the alternative left Comuns in the Barcelona City Council to avoid a city government led by Junts candidate Xavier Trias, who won the election. "To complicate things is to agree with the PP to wrest the mayoralty of Barcelona from Xavier Trias. To complicate things is to campaign saying that the right must be stopped and then reach agreement with them, vote with them and demonstrate with them," stated the general secretary of Junts.
Illa fa servir els arguments de Feijóo contra Sánchez.
— Jordi Turull i Negre (@jorditurull) May 29, 2024
I a més, embolicar les coses és pactar amb el PP per arrabassar l'alcaldia de Barcelona a @XavierTrias. Embolicar les coses és fer campanya dient que s’ha d’aturar la dreta i després pactar, votar i manifestar-se amb ella. https://t.co/qOTt8E1r6u
Puigdemont and Illa, the two candidates for investiture
Despite the secrecy in the negotiations, it has been known since election night that the Catalan president-in-exile and Junts candidate, Carles Puigdemont, has the intention of presenting himself at the investiture to become president of the Generalitat again. Despite the fact that the pro-independence bloc does not have an absolute majority of MPs, Puigdemont considers that the independence project, shared by Junts, the Republican Left (ERC) and far-left CUP, has more support than the Socialist one. On the other hand, Salvador Illa considers that he won the election and could have an absolute majority for his investiture with a hypothetical tripartite agreement between the PSC, ERC and the Comuns.
The CUP also announced this Wednesday that this week it will have a telematic meeting with president Puigdemont to explore possible agreements. The far-left party, moreover, seeks to have its own group in Parliament despite obtaining only four deputies. With the current numbers they would share a mixed group with the xenophobic Catalan Alliance (AC), but they could form their own group through an agreement with a larger party. In any case, it will depend on the decision of the Republican Left, which has the arithmetic option of either reaching agreement with Junts or with the Socialists.
On June 10th, the Catalan Parliament is constituted, with MPs voting for a new speaker and the procedural Bureau. That will be a first barometer of the evolving alliances, with the investiture debate itself, when a presidential candidate seeks the house's support to lead a government, likely to follow in the last week of June.