Ernest Urtasun, spokesperson for the Spanish left-wing platform Sumar, has lamented the "lack of ambition" from Pedro Sánchez's Socialists (PSOE) in negotiating their programme for a new government, which, he says, lacks specifics. Yolanda Díaz's right-hand man affirms that his party "does not want to go into an investiture with an excessively vague or insufficient agreement". For this reason, he asserts that they are "looking for support from ERC and the rest of the partners in Congress" to ask the Socialists to "sit down and negotiate seriously". Urtasun, who has said that Sumar is "surprised" and "does not share" the attitude shown by the PSOE in these first contacts, has called for "ambitious" policies to be specified.
Speaking in an interview with radio station SER, Urtasun said that the negotiations with the Catalan pro-independence parties ERC and Junts for a hypothetical investiture of Pedro Sánchez as head of a new Spanish left-wing coalition government "are progressing positively", although he did not want to give more details, arguing the need for "discretion". "We are facing this with maximum ambition and optimism because we believe it will turn out well", he said. According to Urtasun, "we all want this to go well" and, in his opinion, "I don't think anyone is thinking of giving PP and Vox a second chance through a repeat election and taking that risk".
In this process that Urtasun is describing, it must be remembered that the arithmetic in the Spanish lower house is key: PSOE and Sumar need the explicit 'yes' of the Catalan pro-independence parties - ERC and Junts, with 7 deputies each - to be able to give a green light to Pedro Sánchez as new Spanish prime minister in an investiture vote. Thus the need to embark on tough negotiations. If they fail, through, a new general election is likely, since the bloc of the Spanish right, with Feijóo at the head, doesn't have the numbers to form a government either . "From the polls, the message is that this country does not want PP-Vox. We have to govern more and better, which means facing the pending problems of the citizens, and these must be faced with a governance agreement, not only among [the politicians], but also with the citizens", declared Urtasun.
Urtasun remarked that the entire progressive political space is aware that these are "complex" negotiations in which the Catalan question "will be very present", but he affrims that this is not the only point to be debated, because they are also talking about improving public policies. The Sumar spokesperson, who avoided commenting on whether he is in favour or against the amnesty that Junts is asking for, insisted that the solution is through dialogue with Catalonia and once again defended the need for a vote on the agreement that comes out of the dialogue table.
A Bureau with pro-independence parties present
The Sumar politician explained that his party and the PSOE must have "a legitimate presence" in the congressional governance body, the Bureau, and takes it for granted that the Socialists must preside over it: "This progressive block must be reflected with a majority on the Bureau", he asserts. "The nationalist parties [sic] must be part of the table", continued the left-wing spokesperson, with reference to the presence of ERC and Junts in this organ. "Which places they occupy... we are looking at this," he asserted. Urtasun affrimed that the negotiations with the Catalan parties are also "progressing positively" over the formation of the Bureau on August 17th. The spokesperson also considered it "logical" that ERC and Junts could have their own parliamentary group.