CUP ambush in Parliament to derail the investiture
The CUP has prepared a bear trap in the Parliament of Catalonia. For bears who are traitors to independence, specifically. While ERC and JxCAT negotiate the investiture of Pedro Sánchez and assure that the result will bring Catalonia closer to independence, the parliamentary group headed by Carles Riera defends that this is false. And to demonstrate it, he has presented a motion to the plenary session of the Catalan Chamber to promote a referendum law, which will be debated tomorrow, Thursday.. The maneuver is seen from afar and both ERC and JxCAT are already studying how to avoid this vote, at a time when something like this could derail the talks with the acting Government, in a very delicate phase..
Sources from ERC and JxCAT did not want to reveal the meaning of their vote, when the motion will be submitted to the plenary session of the Parliament.. But both groups explain that they are studying ways to avoid this plot by anti-capitalists.. The formula that is being considered at this moment is that each party or both of them as a bloc abstain, in such a way that the initiative declines with the lowest political cost for the sovereigntist forces..
The referendum has emerged as an object of negotiation. The investiture depends on the amnesty, not on the consultation, placed as a long-term wish. “The need for the agreements reached as a political result of the dialogue to be endorsed by citizens, which will allow a pending issue to be closed, contribute to meeting a broad, solid and transversal demand maintained over time and favor a consensus on the future of Catalonia”, points out the agreement between ERC and the PSOE, which has been made public. It is the only official reference to a consultation in the investiture pacts.
The CUP proposes to launch a presentation drafting a referendum law in which the door is left open to unilateralism. According to Carlos Carrizosa, from Cs, it once again exceeds the limits of the Constitution, which is why, in the opinion of the orange party, the Table should not admit this motion for processing..
For the anti-capitalist formation, the motion is proof that the pact that JxCAT and ERC are negotiating with the PSOE implies the renunciation of independence. The CUP considers that this presentation will be “the basic proof of this dejudicialization that is talked about so much in favor of political dialogue”, an expression that has been used on numerous occasions from the socialist ranks.. “The time has come to do the pertinent check,” they say..
Cornered by his speech
Cornered by their speech for years, ERC and JxCAT find themselves in a bind. Their voters would expect them to vote for the initiative. The political pragmatism of the investiture pact, the priority would be to agree on an amnesty. It already happened at the end of September, when a proposed resolution was voted on after the general policy debate that conditioned support for Sánchez on the holding of a referendum..
That decision outraged Salvador Illa and at the time the leader of the PSC already warned that attitudes like that could ruin the negotiation for Pedro Sánchez to renew his position.. And, if there is no investiture, there will be no amnesty law, there will be no transfer of Cercanías, or anything that the independence movement is obtaining these days.
Maximum discomfort
The discomfort is so much that ERC and JxCAT are wondering if it would not be worth burying the initiative in the Parliament's Table, which meets this Wednesday. That would mean accepting the reconsideration proposal that Cs has presented, like in the old days of 2017. And it would also compromise the role of the new president of the Parliament, Anna Erra. The resolution of the motion passes from one to another, aware that the important thing is not to have it in your hand when the music ends.
One way out would be to not make any decision and send the motion to the Constitutional Court so that it can decide whether you can vote or not.. Which would distance the initiative from this Thursday's plenary session and from the investiture negotiation period.. The question is no longer not to vote, but to avoid the bear trap.