With the socialist Francina Armengol already elected president of the Congress of Deputies, the pro-independence parties that have allowed her to gather the 178 votes necessary to get the job have raised their chests about the price to pay for Pedro Sánchez. “We continue dragging the PSOE on the path of resolving the conflict,” boasted the president of ERC, Oriol Junqueras.
Carles Puigdemont, for his part, referred to the agreement to try to make Catalan, Basque and Galician official in the European Union: “It is a fact, not a promise, which was never intended to be given.” The former Catalan president has assured that the agreement reached this Thursday “was not about positions on the Board or chairing commissions, nor could it be, in any way, linked to the investiture.”
On the investiture, precisely, Puigdemont has assured that he is “exactly where he was the day after the elections.” “We will not be moved by promises or political wills without guarantees of compliance from those who do not generate any confidence in us,” insisted the leader of Junts, who stressed that “if future agreements arrive, it will be because their compliance has been verifiably incorporated, as has been the case”.
In the case of ERC, the Republicans have agreed with the PSOE the use of Catalan in Congress, the investigation of espionage with the Pegasus program against pro-independence leaders and a way to “remove” the process, which opens the door to a possible amnesty for those accused with the causes derived from 1-O and other processes that affect the independence movement. In a message on Twitter, Junqueras has stressed that all these are “fundamental issues in democracy.”
At the same time, Junts per Catalunya, whose votes have ended up being definitive for the election of Armengol after the Canary Islands Coalition finally supported the PP, has also issued a statement justifying its support for the PSOE and disassociating it from the investiture: “We do not and will not give never our votes in exchange for nothing. The objective of Junts is the independence of Catalonia and all the agreements we sign serve to move in this direction”.