Speaker proclaims Aragonès candidate to the presidency and calls investiture debate for tomorrow

BarcelonaThere is already a date for the Pere Aragonès's investiture as president of the Generalitat. Speaker Laura Borràs finished her round of contacts with parliamentary groups this Wednesday at noon after meeting the PSC, JxCat and Esquerra - and has proclaimed the republican leader as candidate to the presidency for the investiture with a plenary session that will begin tomorrow at four o'clock and will continue on Friday at nine o'clock in the morning. "I confirm that the candidate with more options to be invested is Pere Aragonès Garcia," said Borràs in a public appearance in Parliament.

The president of the chamber has designated Aragonès as the official presidential candidate after ensuring that he has the absolute majority of votes in the chamber to be elected. After the agreement between Esquerra and Junts was reached, the current vice president has support support from 74 out of 135 MPs, and will be elected in the first round.

The plenary session is expected to begin tomorrow afternoon with Pere Aragonès's speech and will last at least until Friday noon. All parliamentary groups will participate and then there will be a vote. Afterwards, to complete the procedure, Aragonès has to take possession in the Palau de la Generalitat within five days.

Before proclaiming the candidate, Borràs met the three parliamentary groups with the most seats in Parliament, after starting talks yesterday with the PP, Cuidadanos, Vox, CUP and En Comú. The first meeting was with Salvador Illa, the socialist candidate, who will not be put forwards for an investiture debate after all - he said he would stand it if he came first. Illa only had support from his own parliamentary group of 33 MPs.

Once the meeting with Illa was over, the Speaker received the president of Junts group, Albert Batet, and their deputy spokeswoman, Gemma Geis, who this time have expressed their backing for ERC's presidential candidate. It was then ERC's turn, and Borrás met parliamentary group leader Josep Maria Jové and spokesperson Marta Vilalta, who remarked that Aragonès "already has the necessary majority to become president".

In a press conference, Vilalta celebrated the agreement closed with Junts and CUP: "Finally we will be able to fulfil the mandate of the polls". "For us it will be a historic plenary session because ninety years later we will once again have a president of the Generalitat from ERC. We want to start a new phase for the country," said the spokeswoman of the ERC group from the lectern of the Parliament. "We will create a progressive and pro-independence government," she proclaimed, and stated that they will set up the new executive "as soon as possible" to put an end to the current provisional government.

Third attempt

Aragonès will be chosen president in his third attempt. On 26 and 30 March he already underwent a first debate before the chamber, but did not get the necessary votes to be chosen. The ERC leader only obtained the votes of the deputies of his group (33) and the CUP (9), with a total of 42 votes in favour. Junts per Catalunya abstained in both the first and second round, so that its 33 deputies thwarted Aragonès's election. En Comú, PSC, Vox, PP and Ciudadanos voted against.