Podemos, ERC and PNV urge Pedro Sánchez to stay away from Ciudadanos

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There is no discussion about the deep scar that the coronavirus crisis has opened in the legislature. Any previous plan has disintegrated to attend to the health emergency and, almost at the same time, the first economic and social wounds. And it was only the beginning.

A state of alarm and four extensions, dozens of extraordinary decrees, a day by day of exception ... But the policy in Spain has not yet changed so much. The timid approach between the Government and Citizens, which gave Pedro Sánchez the necessary votes to approve in Congress the fourth extension of the state of alarm, yesterday caused a hyperbolic reaction from the investiture partners of the PSOE. And that both the Executive and the orange formation deny that this is the beginning of a lasting relationship, of a support that modifies the arithmetic of the legislature, sustained since its genesis in United We Can, PNV and ERC.

For the members of the PSOE, the entrance on the scene of Cs has been at best as if a pushpin had been placed on an armchair. They stir in place, uncomfortable. At the moment they do not get up, but they warn that they will if the prick goes further, that is, if the president advances to place Inés Arrimadas in a privileged place.

United We Can, which is part of the same Government with a vice president and four ministers, already warns that three parties, if one of them is Cs, are multitudes. "We with Citizens cannot govern," say bluntly in Pablo Iglesias' party.

ERC and PNV, on the other hand, directly launch an ordeal: either Sánchez moves away from Cs or the legislature is in danger. A vote in Congress and the block of the motion of censure and the investiture of Sánchez capsize.

In the purple dome they place the negotiation with Cs in a framework of need: to save the continuity of the state of alarm. They do not believe that the architecture of the coalition is in danger, but there is a fear of losing share of influence in Sánchez. United Podemos and Cs are at the antipodes in almost all policies, especially economic and territorial, and a commitment of the PSOE to try to advance in the post-Covid legislature with Cs support to the 2021 Budgets, instead of the ERC , would put in check many of the postulates with which the coalition government was formed in January.

Iglesias' concern is certainly well founded. The PSOE is not deceived about the possibility of having the support of the 10 seats of Arrimadas, but it will work to support the 2021 accounts, called reconstruction by the president himself.

On Wednesday, in an interview on Onda Cero after the plenary session of Congress, Arrimadas did not rule out that Cs endorses them if Sánchez agrees on economic and social measures with opposition parties and social agents. "These measures would have to have special budgets, of national emergency," he said. "If the measures are agreed, they are sensible and errors are corrected, the perfect thing is that the Budgets had the support of the opposition in a broad sense."

With Podemos in expectation of how the open dialogue path with Cs is evolving, ERC unequivocally raised a frontal rejection. It was done by none other than its leader, Oriol Junqueras. Bluntly, an ultimatum was clearly issued yesterday to Sánchez: "Either he throws himself into the arms of Ciudadanos or he maintains the majority of the investiture." In the Government they frame the position of the ERC in their political dispute with Quim Torra, but, in turn, the Republicans intend to assert their 13 votes in Congress. In Catalonia , Cs has been throughout the procés the great rival of the independence movement and in 2017 it was the first non-nationalist party to win autonomous elections in Catalonia.

Junqueras' demands on Sánchez are clear. The first is to allow Catalonia to manage unconfinement on its own. And the second is to retake the negotiating table on "the Catalan conflict" as soon as the health crisis subsides. If the forum does not work, the legislature will end, the ERC president threatened to clarify to Sánchez that the priority political objectives of his party remain intact despite the pandemic.

This ultimatum was reinforced by the PNV. The formation has already put Sánchez on the ropes, demanding a negotiation to support the extension of the state of alarm and speeding up the deadlines. The approach to Cs has now sown distrust in Basque nationalists, who may see their influence diminished. "The Government has to pay a little more attention to the parties that we brought to La Moncloa and those that advocate this new way of doing politics. I don't think it's good now that in the middle of the river you change your horse, "was the clear message that Andoni Ortuzar, PNV president, sent to La Moncloa. Aware of his position of strength, he threatens to cut off the parliamentary oxygen that allows Sánchez and Iglesias to breathe: «The coherence of this Government and its continuity will be given by those who support the investiture, it will be difficult for a party like Cs to have the generosity enough".

Despite these warnings, the Executive believes that it has resolved its disagreements with the PNV and yesterday went out of its way not to stray too far from the ERC. In her first interview after overcoming the coronavirus, Carmen Calvo denied that there was a change of alliances after the endorsement of Cs to extend the alarm status for 15 more days.

The Executive does not release the ERC's ties and maintains the commitment on the negotiating table between the State and the Generalitat to seek an agreement with the independence movement. "We will continue to dialogue so that Catalonia has a future in the constitutional reserve" of Spain, he said. And despite the rejection of both the PNV and the ERC to further extensions of the state of alarm, the vice president said that "surely we will need a few more weeks."

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

• Coronavirus
• Covid 19
• Politics
• Citizens
• ERC
• PNV
• Catalonia
• PSOE
• Unidas Podemos
• We can
• Pedro Sánchez
• Pablo Iglesias
• Spain
• Oriol Junqueras
• Inés Arrimadas
• Quim Torra
• Carmen Calvo
• Reviewable permanent prison

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