Aragonès proposes governing in a minority in the absence of an agreement with Junts

Barcelona83 days after the elections, Esquerra has taken this Saturday the step that had been meditated for weeks in the engine room of the Republicans: to take up the gauntlet of Junts per Catalunya and run to govern in minority. This was announced this Saturday at a press conference by the national coordinator of ERC and vice-president of the government, Pere Aragonès, in view of the deadlock in negotiations between the Republicans and Junts per Catalunya. "It has been impossible to move forward to a definitive agreement", Aragonès lamented, stressing that the stumbling blocks have been the same since the beginning. "Given the lack of understanding and the fundamental disagreements, the best option for the country is to accept Junts' offer at the start of the negotiations, which was reiterated yesterday by its secretary general at a press conference", Aragonès pointed out.

The Republican leader has assured that his party is prepared to govern alone, but has left the door open to incorporate Junts per Catalunya and any of the other parties that could support his investiture -such as the CUP or the Comuns, with whom he plans to meet again in the coming days- in the executive. Aragonès' intervention this Saturday comes after it became clear on Friday that the discrepancies between Esquerra and Junts per Catalunya are still in force. Although the secretary general of JxCat, Jordi Sànchez, assured that the agreement was imminent at a press conference in the morning, in the afternoon the Republicans made public their discomfort because the stumbling blocks remain the same as at the beginning of the talks: the role of the Consell per la República, the scope of the strategic unity in Parliament and the structure of the Government.

Aragonès, who in an interview with the ARA had already warned that if on 1 May there was no agreement they would have to explore "alternative ways", has explained this Saturday that he hopes that Junts per Catalunya fulfills their word and facilitates his investiture. For that reason, he has pointed out that he will soon ask the president of the Parliament, Laura Borràs, to initiate a round of contacts and to call a plenary investiture session as soon as possible. Beyond whether he also gets the votes of the Comuns, in order to carry out the investiture he needs the votes of at least part of Junts per Catalunya.

Messages from Junqueras and Forcadell

Before the press conference, the president of ERC, Oriol Junqueras, had already stressed the "imperative" need to form a government to tackle the crisis of covid-19. He said this in an article in 'El Periódico', where he also reflected that, "inexplicably", this Government continues "pending a tedious negotiation", which has been set in motion by two of the political actors "while waiting for the third to decide to take the step". Also this Saturday, the former president of the Parliament, Carme Forcadell, warned that the blockage in the negotiations between Esquerra and Junts per Catalunya is generating disaffection among citizens: "I receive many letters from many worried people", she explained to Europa Press.