Sànchez warns "unprecedented" ERC solo government might lead to elections

BarcelonaSecretary general of JxCat, Jordi Sànchez, has maintained its will to reach a coalition agreement with Esquerra this Monday in an interview to Catalunya Ràdio and has summoned the vice-president, Pere Aragonès, to continue negotiating. According to Sànchez, ERC's sudden change is unprecendented but it is still possible to redress the situation. And he warned: "To hope for Pere Aragonès to be invested with the argument that in 83 days we have not reached an agreement is to put us at the foot of an abyss that can lead us to a self-provoked accident of new elections [...]. It is not reasonable to be invested with 33 seats and say that we will reach an agreement later".

He said that Aragonès has been "tutored" by "a part of his party" that "from the first day that did not want an agreement with Junts", referring to statements by former Esquerra deputy Joan Tardà or some criticism by Gabriel Rufián. "You cannot pretend to win an entire government with 33 deputies and this is the feeling we have," he said. In this sense, he has urged the vice-president to meet him again in Lledoners - he said that he already communicated with Aragonès- or he would ask for a prison permit to attend negotiations.

"I urge [ERC] to assume the historic opportunity that we have and Aragonès to convince the voices inside ERC that do not want an agreement with Junts because any other scenario is uncertain, of a very great fragility which the country does not deserve," he said. "Pretending to build a government with 33 deputies is an extreme weakness," he finished

The points of disagreement and the scenario of ceding four votes

While in an interview on Els matins Aragonès asked JxCat for backing from its 32 MPs in order to be invested, Sànchez has warned that his votes will not be "for nothing". He has now said that when he declared in an interview with La Vanguardia that he would facilitate a government to avoid elections, he was referring to an executive between Esquerra and En Comú Podem. "ERC has to decide whether it wants an agreement with the comuns and therefore renounce independence. Or if the comuns join the government because they have become pro-independence. What we will not do is give away an investiture with the ambiguity of ERC," he said. He has also claimed that the condition of ceding four deputies to avoid elections in the face of an ERC-comuns agreement is a proposal that the Republicans have known "since April 7 or 8".

In his opinion, Esquerra is using their statements "fraudulently" in order to govern alone. "If they want a stable agreement, they know they have to agree with Junts," said Sànchez, calling on Esquerra to be "generous" when it comes to reaching an agreement. "It is necessary to know how to lose, but also to win," he said, reproaching the Republicans for not wanting to give in to the strategic unity of independence or the Consell per la República (CxR) when they accept two years of dialogue with "low expectations".

Esquerra's argument for breaking off negotiations is that Junts wants the Consell to direct the Procés from Waterloo, "tutoring" the president of the Generalitat. Sànchez denies this claiming that what they propose is that there is a space of strategic coordination between the three parties and the sovereignist entities within the CxR and that decisions are taken by consensus. "This is not a guardianship," he said, assuring that if Esquerra does not agree certain decisions will not be taken. In this sense, he has been willing to make public all the documents of the negotiation to clarify this point

For Sànchez, Esquerra has been more "tolerant" so far with the Spanish government than with "pro-independence comrades". "If we do not reach an agreement between us, how will we reach a pact with the Moncloa," he wondered. "Aragonès has it in his hands to avoid this mistake and continue negotiating to find an agreement," he has finished.