In the Congress of Deputies there is a small paradigm shift. Before, from 23-J to this part, if there was talk of a match that is in the blockade, which must be given almost impossible concessions to try to approve laws, it was inevitably thought of Junts. Those of Carles Puigdemont have made “not” a way to become the hard bone of gnawing, the stone in the shoe for the government and its partners.
But that is no longer the case. Now we can also join that blockade strategy, something that is increasingly making Pedro Sánchez’s partners more nervous. Above all, because they consider that the purple are positioning themselves against issues that are good for the left. “The party that is now giving problems to approve social issues is not together, it is Podemos,” a parliamentary source of the investiture block recognizes sharply.
Yesterday in Congress two examples were seen. The first, which we can voted against the assignment of migratory competencies to Catalonia. He did it because he considers that it is a law with racist dyes, and he did it against what the majority of the left voted, which preferred to focus on the transfer of powers is good.
The second example was less colorful, at least for the moment, but it will be important too. The Transportation Commission yesterday approved the Government’s Sustainable Mobility Law and sent it to full after several months of discussion in the lower house. In the commission, government members voted with the PSOE, except Podemos, since the representation of the mixed group to which it belongs falls on the BNG deputy, Néstor Rego. PP and Vox voted against.
With these results, parliamentary arithmetic once again puts Podemos in the center and will be the purple formation that will have to unpack between government and opposition partners. It will happen the same as it has happened with the assignment of migratory competencies to Catalonia, which has fallen on the dwellings.
But Podemos is already announcing its vote against. The formation puts as a condition to support the Sustainable Mobility Law that the extensions of El Prat Airport, in Barcelona, and the Port of Valencia are stopped. They consider that these are polluting projects and that it makes no sense to approve a law on environmental mobility with these works.
At the moment, the government has no intention of stopping those works. “Well, another law that does not come out,” sources close to the direction of Podemos affirm.
The problem for the Executive is that this purple pressure has not replaced those of Junts. If not, it would have been to change the seven independence deputies for the four purple, which facilitates the sums. The independentistas continue to press and continue to threaten to definitely break their alliance with the PSOE.
The Secretary General of Junts, Jordi Turull, said yesterday that the decision that his party has to make about the future of the legislature will be closed “before eating the Christmas nougat” and said that it would not be a “hot” decision, but that it will be “thinking about the country.” In Catalonia, of course.
As he explained, the agreement with the Socialists was not “to save full of Congress”, but to tear Sánchez achievements of self -government for Catalonia. But the problem for the independentistas is that they see how many of their pacts with the PSOE are not materializing. The assignment of immigration skills is an example of this: it was agreed but was lying yesterday by the lower house. And the same goes for other issues such as the official of Catalan in the European Union or the debt remove.
With Aliança Catalan eating land in the surveys, Puigdemont cannot give the appearance of sustaining the central government without obtaining anything in return. That is precisely what ERC accuses, his other great competitor.