• PP.Casado proposes that Cs and Navarra Suma refrain so that the investiture does not depend on ERC
  • Vox.Abascal declares the "war" to the pact between Pedro Sánchez and Pablo Iglesias: "Total and frontal opposition"
  • We can. Churches cools the option of having an immediate government: "Much remains to be done"
  • Citizens. Arrimadas calls Pedro Sánchez to look at the center and seek an agreement with PP and Cs

During these last years, in Spain the rounds of queries by the King to nominate the investor candidate have been a relevant, exciting institutional moment. From the boring home menu of the large bipartisan majorities, the modern sauces of the new parties had been changed. The decision of Felipe VI became something transcendent. Even uncertain.

Four years later, with the country blocked since April, two consecutive elections -which accumulate after the successive ones of 2015 and 2016- and seven rounds to designate a candidate for the investiture in between -Don Juan Carlos starred 10 in his almost four decades of reign-, it is not difficult to understand the weariness of the citizens, their disconnection with political reality, their misunderstanding before so many different events.

But the functioning of the State continues its course. And after two days receiving in Zarzuela the leaders with parliamentary representation, Felipe VI entrusted this Wednesday to Pedro Sánchez the formation of the Government. In the words of the president of the Congress, Meritxell Batet, "Sánchez is the only candidate with the possibility of adding the investiture to proceed, and in that sense the King has made his proposal."

Indeed, the candidacy of the socialist leader seems the only viable today, but it is a designation in a vacuum, because there is still no mattress, a network of guaranteed support that ensures that there will be a failed investiture. Sanchez has closed a government coalition agreement with Pablo Iglesias and is negotiating the abstention of ERC to overcome the investiture. But independentists have asked for time. And the president seems determined to grant it.

"The what and not the when"

Without an estimated date to set the plenary session - neither before Christmas, nor before the end of the year -, Sánchez defended on Wednesday night, in an appearance in La Moncloa after his nomination for the monarch, "that the important thing is the what and not when. " The now closest horizon is January. This time will serve not only to end the agreement with ERC, but also to clarify the judicial issue of the immunity of Oriol Junqueras and how this decision can affect Carles Puigdemont and his options that he can become a MEP , and so that if a possible disqualification of the president of the Generalitat, Quim Torra, leads to new elections in Catalonia.

While all these issues, very relevant to the final decision adopted by ERC, are resolved, the acting president will turn to a series of contacts, which should shed light on the problem of ungovernability in Spain. On Monday, December 16, he announced, he will convene in Congress the president of the PP, Pablo Casado, and the spokeswoman for Citizens, Inés Arrimadas. This last meeting, requested repeatedly by her.

After these two appointments, the vice secretary general of the PSOE and spokesman for the Congress, Adriana Lastra, will meet with "all" the political parties. This means that Bildu, Vox and the CUP are included for the first time. The socialists no longer make exceptions or health cords .

In parallel, Pedro Sánchez will call all the regional presidents. This announcement involves recovering the dialogue with Torra, with whom the chief executive has not spoken for months and who refuses to pick up the phone since the episodes of violence that occurred in different Catalan cities after the sentence of the process .

Sánchez defends the agreement with ERC

Torra's recognition is one of the issues that ERC claims. Also the constitution of a dialogue table between the Generalitat and the State to initiate a dialogue process in which to address the "political conflict" in Catalonia. In his appearance, Sanchez was asked about the institutional mechanism in which to settle this lawsuit, and the acting president refused to answer. He only reiterated what he has said so far: "Every agreement will be public and will be within the constitutional framework."

Sanchez thanked ERC for lending to negotiate his abstention, but did not want to "put adjectives" on the development of the talks. "We are moving forward," he revealed. But the negotiations must be "discreet" so that "they come to fruition". This means recognizing that he trusts in this way for the investiture, although he asks the PP and Citizens to "abandon the blockade". In fact, this ambivalent message, repeated in some of his last acts, was not fully understood.

Government sources explain that they will not give up wearing down the opposition for their refusal to support them. In this key, appeals to collaborate in the governance of these two parties seem to occur. The PSOE said, "he hopes there will be no third elections, there cannot and should not be." Because the alternative is "or government or misgovernment." And the Government at this time only goes through the abstention of ERC. Sanchez said he wants "as soon as possible", but, he added, "it is not up to us."

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  • ERC
  • Pedro Sanchez
  • PSOE
  • PP
  • Philip VI
  • Citizens
  • Inés Arrimadas
  • Quim Torra
  • Pablo Iglesias
  • Vox
  • Pablo Casado
  • Cup
  • Bildu

General elections 2019 The King will designate next Wednesday Pedro Sánchez candidate for the investiture

InvestiduraPedro Sánchez, proposed by Felipe VI as a candidate while hiding the negotiation with ERC

General Elections 2019 The PP meets with the PSOE to transmit its rejection of the "sanitary cordon" to Vox at the Table of Congress