The PSOE intensifies contacts to tie control of the Congress Table. “There are many conversations,” said the deputy general secretary of the socialists, María Jesús Montero, during a visit to Campo de Gibraltar. The head of the Treasury is, together with Félix Bolaños, the person in charge appointed by Pedro Sánchez to negotiate with potential investiture partners the formation of the body that governs the Chamber. The flying goal is set on August 17, when the Cortes are inaugurated. And the fact that the vote is secret and in a ballot box makes it difficult for any amount to distribute the nine seats on the Board, which is key for a hypothetical PSOE and Sumar government to carry out its political action.. Or so that the opposition, if it controls the body, hinders the work of the Executive

The arithmetic that came out of the elections on July 23 has forced the PSOE to make full use of it to be able to articulate the sums that allow it to stay, with Sumar, five of the nine seats. There are voices in the left-wing coalition —especially in Podemos— that advocate giving a seat to one of the nationalist and pro-independence parties that should be part of the vote for a possible investiture of Pedro Sánchez. But the socialists are not for the work, at least from the outset. And there is a weighty argument that has to do with the problem of giving a seat to a group and depriving the rest of the members of the hypothetical investiture..

The counterparts that are being considered at this moment of the negotiation are those typical of a negotiation of the Table, points out a socialist source. This translates into the possibility of granting their own group to Junts and ERC, which due to their results on 23-J would not have the automatic right to do so. “We are not going to give details about the claims of the parties and the proposals of the PSOE”, Montero has settled in Cádiz, who has insisted on the need to maintain “discretion and prudence”. The public message is the same that Félix Bolaños gave after 23-J, although, after a few days, he did throw a dart at ERC and Junts to get them to abandon “maximum positions”. But, a week later, the term is shortened and there is a new ingredient to add to the menu, the march of Meritxell Batet, who has renounced being the socialist candidate to preside over the Lower House. The PSC leader, who headed her party's list in Barcelona, has expressed her “honour” for the position she has held and has shown her “gratitude” for the support. The former minister has also been convinced that a “progressive majority” will be formed in the Table and that it will be a comrade in ranks who is the third authority of the State in this XV legislature.

Montero has also had good words for Batet and the work he has carried out “in a difficult and complicated legislature”. The added complication that appears in this new mandate has been one of the reasons that have led the Catalan to resign from the position, according to this newspaper.. “She is one of the most important women in the Socialist Party and will continue to work,” said the Minister of Finance in Cádiz, who has puffed up the result achieved by the list headed by Batet in Catalonia.

The number two of the PSOE has not given clues as to who can be the substitute or substitute for Batet at the head of Congress, although there are names already on the fore, such as Bolaños himself. The current parliamentary spokesperson for the PSOE, Patxi López, who was also president of the Lower House in the short-lived legislature that came out of the general elections of December 2015, is also circulating. Other names such as Alfonso Rodríguez Gómez de Celis cannot be ruled out either. , Vice President of Congress for the last four years and member of the Federal Executive Commission of the PSOE.