Pedro Sánchez has managed to tie an agreement with ERC and with Junts to place the socialist Francina Armengol in the presidency of Congress. The pact with both pro-independence formations guarantees the former Balearic president to be elected as the third authority of the State with an absolute majority in the first vote and this has been the case with a count of 178 votes -the absolute majority is 176- compared to the 139 achieved by the popular Cuca Gamarra -PP, UPN and CC- and the 33 obtained by Ignacio Gil Lázaro from Vox, a party that in the end has broken its commitment to vote for the PP candidate and has presented its own candidate. However, the two Catalan formations -ERC and Junts- have already warned that this decision does not prejudge the final position they adopt when betting on the investiture of the Prime Minister.
The Executive of Junts per Catalunya, meeting since 8:00 a.m. to decide the direction of its vote in relation to the presidency of Congress, announced first thing in the morning a “principle of agreement” with the PSOE to “facilitate” its access to office Francina Armengol. This was communicated by Jordi Turull to the members of the governing body of the party. However, the formation did not yet consider the final yes closed since of the points proposed to achieve the pact there was still one to be closed. The talks and negotiations dragged on until the last minute.
Likewise, before the constitution session of the new Congress began, ERC announced that it had also reached an agreement with the PSOE to vote in favor of the socialist candidate. The agreement reached with Esquerra is especially significant because, in addition to including the immediate use of Catalan in Congress and in relations between citizens and the Administration, it includes the commitment to move forward in removing the “Catalan political conflict” from judicial review through “the necessary legal means “which means, in the words of the ERC deputies themselves, even promoting the processing and eventual approval of an amnesty law.
For its part, the main demands of Junts to allow the PSOE candidate to access the position of third authority of the State involved being able to constitute itself as its own group in Congress, something that was difficult at first because they did not meet all the required conditions. for it. In addition, the PSOE is committed to immediately promoting the use of Catalan in Congress as well as the creation of a commission of investigation into the sewers of the State and the espionage suffered through the software Pegasus to deputies and people related to the independence movement and probably another about the attacks on August 17 in Catalonia.
With the seven deputies from Junts and the seven from ERC voting in favor of Francina Armengol, the socialist deputy has been elected president of Congress in the first vote by an absolute majority, also adding the votes of the PSOE and Sumar, the five from the PNV, the deputy from the BNG and the six from Bildu. With these calculations, the Canary Coalition vote is already inconsequential. Du deputy Cristina Valido has chosen to support the popular Cuca Gamarra. On the contrary, Vox dropped the hook at the last moment of its understanding with the PP after receiving the news that this party would not support the inclusion of one of its deputies in the Congress Table. If this break between the two formations were to be consolidated, any possibility that Feijóo would go to the round of consultations with the King with the guarantee of against with 172 parliamentary support.