Pedro Sánchez is not a political leader who usually follows the same path. He tends to make unexpected turns and blows. But he didn't see it coming. It was not expected. Neither him nor his team. Big surprise. The proposal that Alberto Núñez Feijóo made yesterday to place the European Commission as a mediator in the negotiations to renew the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) shocked the President of the Government and his team. “It was not a format that we expected,” they confess. But, after the initial shock, they quickly accepted, convinced that the mediation commitment of the PP leader legitimizes his roadmap with the independentists, especially with Carles Puigdemont. “Mediation is good for us,” they say.
“If the formula to renew the Judiciary is that there is a verifier, we will be delighted,” state government sources.. After the initial disbelief of many, and even distrust, after verifying that Feijóo's proposal was indeed to grant the role of supervisor to the European Commission, they understand that this initiative by the opposition leader allows them to validate the international mediation that was imposed on them. Carles Puigdemont, who joins the verifier that also forced them to agree to ERC for their contacts. «Feijóo said that the thing about mediators and verifiers was not with him. “It surprised us, but it seems fine to us.”. In the PSOE there are those who even joked about whether it was “naive” or whether the next step will be for the PP to defend the Amnesty Law.
Beyond the jokes, the acceptance of the European Commission as a mediator between the Government and the PP allows the socialists to present this figure as another element when it comes to talking between the parties, seeking to legitimize something unusual such as that a diplomat from El Salvador has to verify the dialogue between the PSOE and Junts in meetings outside Spain where the governability of the country is addressed.
Knowing that their proposal lends itself to comparisons, the PP tries to counteract this argument by stating that the European Commission “is a Spanish institution, given that the EU is the repository of national sovereignty.”
Likewise, regarding the clandestine meetings between the PSOE and Junts abroad, the Popular Party clarifies that the proposed work system would involve three-person meetings in Spain, and the presence of community public authorities with an incontrovertible profile.
The mistrust, which still exists today between PSOE and Junts, led Puigdemont to place foreign mediation as one of the red lines of his negotiation, in his purpose of placing the “political conflict” on an international stage.. The socialists rejected it, they refused. But by assuming that it was one of the demands of the independentists, they tried to have this mediation fall to Spanish figures such as Miquel Roca, father of the Constitution.. Junts refused and the PSOE had to accept. That international mediation has been the subject of criticism and censure by the PP. In the Government they believe that they now have an argument to combat their attacks, at the same time that this idea of a verifier is socialized beyond as a trick to the independence supporters.. In fact, they now even allow themselves to joke that they already have “experience” in international mediators.
«The PP takes a first step. He says let's talk and proposes a formula. “We accept,” state government sources. Regarding why the PP now puts the figure of a supervisor on the table, Sánchez's team understands that the popular ones “are in a dead end” regarding the blockade of the Judiciary, which has now lasted more than five years. “They have to assume that they have to provide a solution.”