Pedro Sánchez Seeks Junts Per Catalunya’s Support For Re-Election

Pedro Sánchez needs Junts per Catalunya’s support in order to be invested again as Spanish prime minister. The results of the July 23rd general election gave the PSOE no room for manoeuvre except for reaching an agreement with Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC), Basque Country Unite (Bildu), the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) and Junts to repeat their stay in Moncloa palace, and hypotheses have already been put forward as to how an agreement could be reached with Carles Puigdemont’s party. On Tuesday, José Manuel García-Margallo, former People’s Party (PP) foreign minister, detailed a possible formula for reaching an agreement between Junts and the PSOE. “Sánchez could propose a plan B: legal recognition of the Basque and Catalan nations, thoroughness of the autonomous laws and an arbitration procedure to resolve conflicts,” he declared on Catalonia’s public television channel TV3.

It would no longer be a question of proposing a referendum. It would no longer be a question of proposing a referendum on self-determination, but rather a modification of the Basque and Catalan statutes that would recognise the Basque and Catalan legal nation, that would give the autonomous laws the possibility of excluding any action by the central administration, that is to say that they would be exhaustive, and would deny the Spanish Constitutional Court’s capacity of intervening to resolve inter-territorial conflicts, which would be replaced by an arbitration procedure”, explained García-Margallo.

Over the last few days, since the general election, there has been speculation about the different possible offers Pedro Sánchez could make Junts when negotiations between the two parties begin. One of the last ones to be entertained was the possibility of including the mayoralty of Barcelona in the pact, despite the fact that Xavier Trias, candidate of Trias per Barcelona (Junts) and winner of the local elections (but who was not invested as mayor) categorically ruled it out.

On the other hand, left-wing coalition Sumar already set to work to sign an agreement with Junts. Yolanda Díaz’s party, fourth in the elections with 31 seats, decided to knock on the Catalan president in exile’s door and start talks with Carles Puigdemont to try to convince him to invest Pedro Sánchez as prime minister, as confirmed on Monday by sources from Yolanda Díaz’s party. The person in charge of making these approaches will be Jaume Asens, former deputy in Congress for the Commons (he did not run in the July 23rd elections), who has a good relationship with Carles Puigdemont; in fact, he advised him on his exile. He also has a good friendship with former Catalan minister Toni Comín, also exiled.

Produced in association with El Nacional En