Pedro Sánchez has closed his round of contacts with Spain's parliamentary parties without either a date or the necessary voting support for his investiture as new Spanish PM. Of course, he finished the interviews having prepared the ground for the coming weeks and he took the most significant step by meeting this Friday morning with the Together for Catalona (Junts) spokesperson, Míriam Nogueras, at the Congress of Deputies. Despite the strength of the symbolism, when leaving the meeting, Nogueras lowered expectations over a pact with Sánchez's Socialists (PSOE) for the investiture. "We're still far away from the historic commitment", she said in reference to the words Carles Puigdemont used in his Brussels address at the beginning of September.
After a meeting that lasted more than an hour, Nogueras appeared in Congress accompanied by the six deputies who make up the Junts parliamentary group. These are the deputies that Pedro Sánchez has to seduce in order to repeat his mandate in the Moncloa palace in what is clearly his knottiest question. Aware of this context, the Junts spokesperson asserted her parliamentary strength and put a stop to any intention from the PSOE to seal an agreement via a fast track route. For this reason, in a brief appearance, Nogueras affirmed that the PSOE "is not looking for Junts' votes" if what the Socialists intend is "to do what has been done in the last four years": "It was found that it didn't work". The message remains unchanged, in the sense that Junts wants "verifiable actions" and to "be paid in advance" - that is, to see the results in advance - before it signs an agreement to allow Sánchez to be returned as prime minister of the Spanish government.
With the aim of underpinning this strategy of pressure on the Socialists, the spokesperson for Junts handed Pedro Sánchez the transcript of the address that the Catalan president-in-exile, Carles Puigdemont, gave in Brussels on September 5th, a speech that served as a framework for the negotiation opened to reach agreement over the investiture. "We didn't come to listen to the conditions of the PSOE, but rather, to note exactly the opposite", she said, emphasizing the importance of her parliamentary group's seven votes. As for the rest of the negotiation, Junts will maintain discretion from now on, "in the same line that the party has followed for weeks", said Nogueras. "We are at an absolutely transcendent and extraordinary moment; we will not play games with headlines and leaks".
PSOE, to "intensify the pace of negotiations"
In the PSOE, the meeting with Junts left behind good sensations. Sources from Party headquarters let it be known that next week significant steps could be taken with regard to the negotiations, although they also noted that there will be no photos or events. After this week of public meetings in parliament, from now on the negotiations will continue out of the spotlight.
According to Socialist sources, the negotiating committee, which will meet on Monday to assess the balance of the meetings, "will intensify the pace of negotiations and the working out of specifics of the proposals". As difficult as it is for the PSOE to mention it in public, the amnesty law to end pro-independence prosecutions, which is being negotiated with Junts and the Republican Left (ERC) is undoubtedly on the table. In this regard, the Socialists propose to sign agreements to "enact policies to expand rights", as well as their "commitment to social coexistence, dialogue and plurality".