Pedro Sánchez and Pere Aragonès, on January 19, at the XXVII Spanish-French Summit held in Barcelona.David Zorrakino (Europa Press)
Once again, all the eyes of Spanish politics are looking at Barcelona.
"Let's see if the PSC and ERC budgets agree once and for all and we can unblock everything that we have pending in Congress," complains one of the government negotiators.
Salvador Illa, leader of the PSC, has held the pulse for weeks and has managed to get Pere Aragonès, the
president
, gave in on the central point: a huge investment in the so-called fourth belt of Barcelona, which had opposition in important sectors of the affected areas.
Also on the table is the expansion of El Prat, which ERC rejected due to pressure from the environmental world.
The pact is about to come to fruition, but it must be closed.
And that is the piece that unlocks the entire board in the majority of the Government, according to several members of the Executive and the groups consulted.
Key laws such as housing or the gag, practically closed now, are waiting for that pact to move forward.
Without ERC those rules do not come out.
The Socialists, who come from three years in which ERC squeezed them a lot in the negotiations, are paying them with the same coin.
“We have assumed a significant wear on our electorate with measures such as the change in embezzlement.
They will also have to assume theirs.
Agreeing always has costs, but it is the only way to advance in politics”, sums up a member of the Government.
Félix Bolaños, the great negotiator of the General Budgets with ERC —and with almost all the groups— said it on Wednesday: “ERC has to seek support like the others, giving in on some things, as we all do”.
Illa, who has the same seats as the Republicans, has managed to get them to treat him as an equal, as he claimed.
More information
Aragonès tests his negotiating strategy before the bases in the ERC National Congress
Sánchez, they insist on their environment, has not ordered Illa to agree.
The PSC leader has all the room to negotiate as he sees fit.
And neither was there a closed agreement between La Moncloa and ERC, according to sources from both parties, which forced support for the Budgets in Catalonia in exchange for the support of the Republicans in the national accounts.
But Sánchez and Illa talk a lot, several sources point out.
And they agree that this pact is of interest to everyone.
Illa consolidates his profile as a serious politician who solves problems, something that helped him a lot to be the most voted in the last Catalan elections and now places him as a benchmark in all the polls.
Sánchez consolidates the idea that he has managed to divide the independence movement —ERC said just a few months ago that it would never settle accounts with the PSC and was betting on taking them out with Junts— and the Republicans achieve political air with the Budgets to be able to continue their fierce battle with the Carles Puigdemont's group for the leadership of the independence movement.
The PP is convinced that these agreements with ERC will sink the PSOE and will lead Alberto Núñez Feijóo to the Government.
But the Socialists believe that it is the other way around, that Sánchez will be able to say that his policy in Catalonia is working.
“Isn't it good for Spain that ERC leans on the PSC and thus isolates those from Waterloo?
We have to explain that well.
If [Emiliano García] Page helped a little, everything would be easier, because the results are evident”, says a member of the Government.
Salvador Illa, during the press conference he offered last Thursday in Parliament. Quique García (EFE)
Everything is changing very quickly in Catalonia, and this agreement opens up many expectations, especially for the future.
The PSC, ERC and Iniciativa, one of the bases of the commons, have already governed together.
At the moment that is still far away, but this is a very obvious first step.
Sánchez seems convinced that re-election at the end of the year would be very difficult without an overwhelming result in Catalonia.
In addition to the agreement in Barcelona, the key to unlocking almost everything, there will be another milestone in an intense week.
The Government is preparing the debate in the Senate on Tuesday, in which Sánchez will face Alberto Núñez Feijóo, with the confidence given by the latest economic data.
Spain grew 5.5% in 2022, above expectations and far from the recession predicted by the opposition.
Sánchez has everything ready and the announcement of a very significant increase in the minimum wage (combined with that of pensions, which is now reaching retirees' payrolls) offers him arguments to lead a very ideological clash with Feijóo, in which he He will remember the management of the crisis of the last government of the PP and in front of his.
In La Moncloa they are convinced that Sánchez is managing to win the debate against the PP, precisely in the historically strongest point of the popular ones, the economy.
Mariano Rajoy came to the Government with her in 2011, with a PSOE sunk after Zapatero's adjustment, and with her Alberto Núñez Feijóo also intends to do so.
Leaders of the PP consulted insist that, regardless of whether there are positive data, inflation, no matter how much it falls, continues to devour the purchasing power of the Spanish and that plunges the Government into a fine rain.
But in La Moncloa they highlight that, with the data that shows that Spain is much better off than its environment, Feijóo has run out of economic discourse and that is why he is now concentrating on other issues, such as the unforeseen consequences of the law of
only yes is yes
, an obvious black hole for the Executive that it will now try to solve with a reform.
Far from Zapatero's cuts, Sánchez is doing the opposite: a large increase in the social security shield, increases in pensions, the minimum wage, massive hiring of civil servants, social assistance, lowering taxes on food... and that is why in the Government insist that there is a party and that they can win the elections, contrary to what happened in 2011. Without a doubt, Sánchez will play the economic and social card thoroughly, in addition to the Catalan one.
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
Keep reading
I'm already a subscriber