Sánchez and Illa meet at the Moncloa Palace amid the crisis over the Cerdán case.

BarcelonaSpanish President Pedro Sánchez summoned the President of the Generalitat (Catalan government), Salvador Illa, to the Moncloa Palace this Friday, amid the crisis surrounding the Cerdán case. The meeting, as confirmed to ARA by sources familiar with the matter, came to light unexpectedly and was not on either party's agenda. This week, Illa joined forces with Sánchez, defending the "forcefulness" with which he has acted in trying to contain the scandal that has affected the party and, consequently, the Spanish legislature. The Moncloa Palace has not denied the meeting, and the Palau de la Generalitat (Catalan government) has refrained from commenting.

The Catalan president has also been quick to dispel any shadows left over from his management of the Ministry of Health during the pandemic, when he sat in the Council of Ministers alongside former Transport Minister José Luis Ábalos. "I am completely calm, clean, and ready to show my face when asked," he said during the control session in the Parliament this week, where he engaged in a tense face-to-face with the PP (People's Party). This was when its leader, Alejandro Fernández, asked him who Chili was, the name that appears in the UCO report and with whom, according to Koldo García, the then Minister of Health spoke regularly. "I have no fucking idea who he is," Isla said during the parliamentary session.

Pressure from the bishops

Meanwhile, the pressure on Sánchez to end his term continues. The Spanish Episcopal Conference has joined the right and called for early elections in the face of alleged corruption cases affecting the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party). This was defended by its president, Luis Argüello, who believes it is time for "the citizens to discover" a "basic principle of democracy." This was during the meeting of the permanent committee of the Episcopal Conference, as its secretary general, Francisco César García Magán, later reported in a press conference.

Without directly addressing Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the episcopal leader emphasized to the bishops that the Constitution provides for other "mechanisms" to force changes in the Spanish government. These are a motion of censure, which the PP has already ruled out presenting because it lacks sufficient support for it to succeed, and a vote of confidence. In the latter case, the decision to submit the position to the Lower House depends entirely on Sánchez, who has so far refused to do so. At the beginning of the crisis, the partners gave it air (with the exception of Podemos and, later, the BNG) But with each passing day, the pressure on the Spanish president increases, as he receives constant requests to appear before Congress to give explanations before the date he himself had proposed, July 9.

Given all this, the bishops asserted that cases like Cerdán's and the alleged corruption scheme that unfolded through the ministry headed by José Luis Ábalos undermine the "credibility" of political parties in society. "The corruption of a democratic system is a dangerous gateway to authoritarianism and regimes that cease to be democratic," García Magán warned.

But neither the bishops' position nor the records The measures implemented this Friday by the UCO in Ferraz and Transport have, for now, reversed the Spanish government's position. "Regarding the reasons for the legislature to expire until 2027," defended the Minister of Education and spokesperson for the Spanish government, Pilar Alegría. First Vice President María Jesús Montero simply asked that justice be served "to the end" and said she has "no concerns" about the matter.