ERC and Junts have signed a truce in their tortuous relationship to form a common front with which to push Pedro Sánchez to negotiate the celebration of a new self-determination referendum, in addition to approving an amnesty law to annul the judicial processes of the process from the January 1, 2013.

The formations led by Oriol Junqueras and Carles Puigdemont join forces just one year after the post-convergents left the Government after threatening Pere Aragonès with forcing a question of confidence to withdraw the presidency of the Generalitat.

Junts then demanded a “unity of action in Congress” to which ERC refused – being as it was an exclusive partner of the PSOE – and to which it now bows in the face of the evidence that the acting president will only be re-elected if the party wants it. fugitive.

The separatist entente will be enshrined today in the two main Catalan institutions: the Parliament and the Barcelona City Council. ERC and Junts agreed on Thursday in extremis and will vote this Friday on joint resolutions in the Autonomous Chamber, in what represents their first agreement to establish common conditions for the re-election of the socialist candidate.

“The Parliament is in favor of the Catalan political forces represented in the Spanish Cortes not supporting an investiture of a future Spanish Government that does not commit to working to make effective the conditions for holding a referendum,” it reads. the proposal that the Republicans and the post-convergents subscribe to.

In another joint resolution, ERC and Junts defend “the need for an amnesty law to nullify what had been classified as a criminal or administrative offense in relation to the defense of the exercise of the right to self-determination of Catalonia.”

There is no allusion in the texts to the threat of returning to the unilateral route or to the need for the negotiations on the referendum to be supervised by a rapporteur; requirements, both initially set by Puigdemont during the conference given in Brussels on September 5 and which Junts appears to have withdrawn for the sake of the agreement with ERC. Always at the expense of the fugitive from Justice ordering their recovery during the negotiation with the PSOE.

Shared roadmap

Until now, Junqueras and Puigdemont had been unable to outline a shared roadmap to address Sánchez's investiture, so this first alliance transcends the value of two simple parliamentary motions and points to the possibility that ERC and Junts end up agreeing the price of Sánchez's re-election, although new differences and parallel conversations with the PSOE should not be ruled out.

Both resolutions will be put to the vote this Friday on the last day of the Parliament's General Policy Debate, precisely the forum in which the breakup of the Catalan Executive was forged last year.

The amnesty motion will be approved, as it has also been drafted by the CUP, which guarantees a majority for the secessionist forces. But the one regarding a new referendum does not have the support of the anti-system, so it will be necessary for the radicals or the commoners to abstain for it to see the light, since the PSC has already announced that it will not support any initiative related to the amnesty or the referendum to not be significant in the Catalan Chamber.

Sources from the Catalan socialists assume that there will be some type of amnesty agreement with the independence movement, they consider that the motion that will be voted on today in the Parliament is “more of a staging” than a real front, but they also emphasize that “there will be no referendum and it will not be a reason for negotiation” with separatism.

The escape maneuver devised by the formation led by Salvador Illa had the support of the PSOE. In a joint statement, both opted for “dialogue within the Constitution” as a way to “overcome the division and not deepen the rupture,” but they avoided explicitly denying the possibility of discussing a referendum, as secessionism demands.

Yolanda Díaz's partners will thus have the opportunity to join forces with the independence movement to put pressure on the PSOE, after having started negotiations with Puigdemont through the visit of the second vice president of the Government to Waterloo.

The specific terms of the amnesty law that ERC and Junts aim for are specified both in the Parliament's initiative and in the one that both have agreed on at Barcelona City Council.

In the text of the Autonomous Chamber, the pro-independence forces urge the PSOE to “start from the agreement included in the organic amnesty law that was inadmissible by the Congress Board and that Junts, ERC and CUP jointly presented in 2020”. But the details are offered in the City Council motion. There it is specified that the amnesty must cover “the facts, actions and omissions of political intention linked to the exercise of the right of self-determination of Catalonia, classified as a criminal or administrative infraction, that have taken place since January 1, 2013 at the entry in force of the law”. And it is added that, in addition, the Government must “guarantee the non-repetition of judicial or administrative actions” to “pursue” actions aimed at organizing a new referendum.

The fact that this second motion has been agreed upon by the Barcelona City Council does not diminish its political weight, because regardless of the good harmony that may exist between the leaders of Junts and ERC in the City Council -Xavier Trias and Ernest Maragall-, the text necessarily counts with the approval of Josep Rius, councilor of the posconvergents, but also vice president and spokesperson for Junts and close collaborator of Puigdemont, of whom he was chief of staff when he was president of the Generalitat and whom he accompanied during the first months of his escape.

In addition to spelling out the intentions of ERC and Junts with the amnesty, Trias and Maragall sought with this resolution to compromise the socialist mayor of the Catalan capital, trying to get him to at least abstain.. But the joint decision of PSOE and PSC to vote against all independence initiatives related to self-determination and the grace measure frees Jaume Collboni from all pressure.

This has already been transferred to Sánchez who will have to cross the red line of the referendum if he wants to remain in La Moncloa.