Spain’s Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) and Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) on Thursday formalized the deal for Catalan independents to make a new left-wing government viable after Spain’s July 23 elections.
The PSOE, led by Pedro Sánchez, and the ERC, led by the president of the regional government, Pere Aragonès, had already announced on Tuesday an amnesty deal for those involved in the Catalan attempt at self-determination, which culminated in a unilateral declaration of independence . in 2017.
On Tuesday, the two parties said they would reach a global agreement in the coming hours under which ERC delegates would vote in favor of Pedro Sánchez’s reappointment as prime minister.
The agreement was concluded and formalized on Thursday with the signing of a document by the Socialist leader and current Minister of the Presidency of Government, Félix Bolaños, and by Oriol Junqueras, President of the ERC, former Vice President of the Regional Executive and one of those who were convicted through the 2017 trial.
“PSOE and ERC have signed an agreement within the framework of the investiture process of Pedro Sánchez,” the Socialist Party announced in a social media post that included images of the moment of signing the document in Barcelona.
According to sources from both sides, in addition to the amnesty, the agreement also includes the transfer of the management of suburban and regional trains in Catalonia to the responsibility of the regional government, as well as issues related to the financing of the autonomous community.
Amnesty is the demand of Catalan parties to allow a new left-wing government in Spain, with a coalition of the PSOE and the Somar Platform, led by Pedro Sánchez.
In addition to the ERC, amnesty is being demanded by Juntos de Catalunya (JxCat), the party of the former president of the regional government Carles Puigdemont, who has been living in Belgium since 2017 to escape Spanish justice.
To be reappointed as prime minister, Sánchez still needs the vote of deputies from three more nationalist and independence parties in Galicia and the Basque Country (Galician Nationalist Bloc, Basque Nationalist Party and EH Bildu).
The agreement with the ERC is the first that the PSOE concludes with the parties it needs to make the new government viable through parliament.
In the last term, the ERC had already made Sánchez’s current government viable by abstaining from the vote to appoint the Socialist leader as prime minister.
If no new prime minister is appointed by parliament by November 27, Spain will have to repeat the elections.
The PSOE and ERC agreement is “for the investiture of Pedro Sánchez and to guarantee the stability of the legislature,” Minister Félix Bolaños said at a press conference in Barcelona this afternoon.
Bolaños argued that the Spanish and Catalans in particular voted “for dialogue” on July 23 and that it is in response to this voting mandate that the Socialists are negotiating with the Catalan parties.
The amnesty “will give back to politics what politics should never have left” and “the duty of strong democracies” is “to improve coexistence where it has been broken within the framework of the constitution and the law”, he added to.
In addition to the amnesty, the PSOE agreed with the ERC to “deepen political dialogue” within the scope of the “dialogue table” opened between the government of Spain and the regional executive during the last legislature, Bolaños said.
During the last term, the Spanish government pardoned nine convicted independents in prison and amended the Criminal Code in favor of other people accused by the courts who have not yet been tried.
At the same press conference, the leader of the Socialist Party of Catalonia, Salvador Illa, emphasized that “the vast majority of Catalans are betting on total reunification,” referring to the outcome of the July 23 elections, which the PSOE won in 2011. the region.
“Catalan society has turned the page” and it is time for the parties to do the same, said Illa, who argued that there is now also in the Spanish parliament a majority of representatives of all Spaniards “who approve of this”.
Oriol Junqueras argued at a separate press conference that the agreement signed today makes Catalonia the winner because the country can continue to make progress on the path to self-determination, but also in terms of increased financial resources and autonomous governance.
According to the ERC leader, the amnesty agreed with the PSOE will cover people who have been under legal proceedings since 2014 in connection with Catalonia’s self-determination.
“It is an investiture agreement and the continuity of the legislature will depend on maintaining the will to reach an agreement,” he stated.
Source: DN
