JxCAT lands on realism and renounces charging in advance for the investiture pact

JxCAT has partially landed on realism after two months of negotiation for the investiture of Pedro Sánchez. Between July and September, a mantra was repeated from the formation. “We are clear that in the negotiation with the Government we charge in advance,” the JxCAT spokesperson in Congress, Míriam Nogueras, reiterated again and again.. The phrase was consolidated when last month Catalan was made the official language in Congress along with Galician, Basque and Spanish.. But at the beginning of October, this message disappeared and it is already assumed that to agree on anything he will have to trust the socialist leader..

This realism only affects the acceptance of political calendars.. Not so with its objectives, which remain focused on an amnesty law that humiliates the State in its preamble, a declaration of Catalonia as a nation by the Government, a date for an agreed referendum and the official status of Catalan in the EU..

The amnesty cannot be approved before the investiture, as JxCAT initially intended. Nor is it expected that the Catalan will be official in Europe before, eventually, Pedro Sánchez is chosen again as president. That was part of the pessimistic message that Carles Puigdemont communicated last Friday to the reduced version of the Junts executive, who visited him in the south of France.. The principles he established for the negotiation could be maintained, but charging in advance is over.. From this moment on, the training will have to be charged as ERC, when it is due.

“Now Catalonia begins to charge in advance” was the motto of the JxCAT national council in mid-September. The event was a display of the new strength that the party had, the result of the electoral results of the general elections of 23-J. But since the beginning of October the party itself was burying that triumphalism, since the Congress agenda did not allow the future law to be voted on before the investiture, as the independence party initially intended.. The same thing happened with Catalan in Europe: the European agenda is complex and the official status of Catalan will have to wait..

Something similar happens with the third key leg for JxCAT in the investiture negotiation: the recognition of Catalonia as a nation.. Moncloa and the PSOE refuse. So that the talks do not fail, the solution that has been sought is to put on the table the old debate of the national minority, that Catalonia be recognized as a national minority within the EU, a formula that is reserved in the community framework to groups of a certain ethnic affinity, such as gypsies, who have been systematically marginalized throughout history.

'A posteriori'

But if in the end some type of recognition is given to Catalonia, it will also be a posteriori.. So, as always happens with Pedro Sánchez, nothing is guaranteed. At the time, Oriol Junqueras accepted the reduction of sentences for the crime of embezzlement to try to run for public office again.. And there it is: disabled. JxCAT has made this type of situation a public mockery of the Republicans. Now, Puigdemont's men are faced with the same situation..

The times are worrying. For this reason, JxCAT has come out this week demanding a specific date for the official status of Catalan in Europe.. And the response of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, was that it will still take months. Once again, the acceptance of reality against what was going to be a pretension that would mark the difference with the Republicans and could be politically profitable in the face of an independence electorate.

The problem for JxCAT is the dissonance between the discourse for its militancy and its voters and the situation on the ground. There is no incentive for the party to return to the polls. And more with Puigdemont's immunity at stake for next November. In another way, but the same thing happens to the PSOE. A repeat election does not benefit you. But he won't be able to win the game five to zero..

Time delay

Times are long in politics. But in the age of social media, grassroots expect immediacy. How will the JxCAT militancy digest that their party has agreed to an amnesty that is later suspended when the Supreme Court sends a consultation to the Constitutional Court? The TC may delay its decision. The elections for the presidency of the Generalitat could even come and neither Puigdemont, nor Junqueras, nor the rest of the amnestied will be able to stand in the elections, scheduled for February 2025.. If something like this happens, no matter how much the measure is sold as a victory before the State, it could further demobilize a group that has already been immersed in deep discouragement for a couple of years.. This is what happens when you tell people that you will get paid in advance and then they find a bill in installments.