Sánchez rules out a repeat election and is convinced that there will be an agreement with the independentists | Spain

As the decisive moment approaches, and contacts between the PSOE and Junts advance, Pedro Sánchez seems increasingly convinced that there will be an agreement with the Catalan independentists and, therefore, he will be able to be sworn in as President of the Government for the third time – first he achieved it in 2018 with a motion of censure and then in 2019 after two general elections. In New York, at the UN headquarters, The president has had an informal conversation with the journalists following the trip and has maintained at all times that repeating the election is not an option. Some sectors of the independence movement believe that Sánchez could be tempted to force a repetition to improve his position, which is now fragile because he needs Junts’ yes in practically every vote, but the president categorically denies this and He says that his plan a, b and c is to achieve a progressive Government because the numbers are given and the option of going to elections again is not contemplated. In 2019, this formula was tested and it went badly for the PSOE, which lost seats and governability became complicated.

The president does not want to enter into the content of the negotiation yet, so as not to complicate it, and at all times avoids saying the word amnesty, the axis of the entire discussion. But he does speak more naturally about unilaterality, another central element of the debate. Yolanda Díaz raised on Sunday in The vanguard that, in exchange for the amnesty, the independentists have to renounce unilateralism, that is, the threat of doing another processes in the future. Junts rejects this possibility for the moment, and Carles Puigdemont has expressly said that they will never renounce unilaterality. However, in the PSOE they trust that there will be space here to negotiate solutions and find a meeting point.

Sánchez does not want to go into such detail, but he has given information that supports the idea that the PSOE is going to demand that Junts renounce unilateralism in exchange for exploring amnesty. The president assures that unilateralism has a very minority support of Catalans, only 11%, citing a recent CEO survey (the Catalan CIS).

Sánchez insists, without expressly talking about amnesty, but with that implicit idea, that the results in Catalonia in the last general elections support the policy that the Government has opted for in recent years, that is, pardons or reforms of the Code Penal to facilitate coexistence and harmony, which are the terms that the Executive usually uses in addition to the mantra of “the objective is coexistence, the method is dialogue and the framework is the Constitution.” The president insists that it is Catalan society that is asking for progress along this line to overcome the tear of the processesand that is where the Government will move.

The leader of the PSOE defends that his party has not yet spoken, while speculation rages about how far the amnesty will go, but when his time comes, he will do so clearly and emphatically. Asked about the criticism that the amnesty has received from historical leaders of the PSOE such as Felipe González, Sánchez conveys his utmost respect for the figure of the former president, and remembers that he himself joined the party in 1993 to support the then general secretary, but he does not share criticism and also believes that at this moment this harsh reproach from the man who led the PSOE for the longest time is not making an impact on either the socialist militants or the progressive voters. Sánchez believes that the latter, like the militants, what they want is for there to be a progressive government as soon as possible, and to avoid another one from the PP and Vox, and that is why he believes that when his proposal is known, it will have very clear support both in the PSOE as in the progressive world. Sánchez also maintains that he and his leadership are doing the same thing as González in his day and José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero later: transforming the party to adapt it to the times, moving the country forward.

The president does not want to make much progress on his negotiating proposal or his country project, but he assures that as soon as he can, that is, when the King instructs him to attempt the investiture, he and the PSOE will speak very clearly in detail about what they plan to do. , to clear up all the speculations that, he says, are surprising him in recent days. And there will also be procedures within the socialist bodies, with the Executive, the Federal Committee and a consultation of the bases included. That is why he believes that there will be support from the PSOE for the negotiation that he is leading his trusted team, with Félix Bolaños, María Jesús Montero and Santos Cerdán at the helm. Sánchez has also had kind words for Yolanda Díaz, she has avoided criticizing his meeting in Brussels with Puigdemont and has insisted that they are in harmony and in permanent dialogue on this very delicate matter.

Sánchez is especially critical of the president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo. He believes that he has shown that he does not have autonomous leadership, that he moves driven by what José María Aznar, Isabel Díaz Ayuso or Vox do. What’s more, he believes that next Sunday’s event, in which the popular will preventively protest the amnesty before Feijóo’s own investiture attempt, is a nonsense that demonstrates in his opinion that there is no one in charge of the PP. Sánchez believes that Feijóo had an opportunity to show his autonomy when they were about to agree on the renewal of the General Council of the Judiciary, but when he backed out at the last moment he showed little leadership and since then he has not been able to recover it. The leader of the PSOE believes that the PP is trapped in its pacts with Vox and cannot get out of there. Meanwhile, he is already preparing his investiture, convinced that there will finally be an agreement with the independentists and all the other necessary allies.