The pacts with Catalonia that are at risk if Sánchez calls elections

BarcelonaGabriel Rufián asked this Friday for "a cool head" from Pedro Sánchez when deciding whether to press the red button to call early elections. The republican spokesperson said this because on the left of the PSOE there is "nothing to add up" – the Sumar space has not yet chosen a visible face nor has it negotiated what its coalition will be like –. This has been one of Rufián's obsessions for months: to bring together the left-wing and pro-independence forces from across the State into a broad front to try to maximize the vote – a proposal that has met with the frontal rejection of Oriol Junqueras –. But beyond how this space is reconfigured, Rufián ignored that if the Spanish legislature ends, the main pacts that ERC still has to fulfill will also be left as dead letters. Without going any further, the new financing model for Catalonia, the star pact that led ERC to invest Salvador Illa, would not see the light of day.

The proposal that the former Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, presented last January –after months of stalled negotiations– would remain paralyzed, although in this case, it was difficult for it to prosper with Sánchez in government because Junts did not endorse it. Although the PSOE assumed the agreement, the socialists have dragged their feet from the beginning to materialize this pact. And the proof is that a year and a half had to pass since they signed it for the two parties to reach a pact that lowered the content signed in July 2024.

But beyond financing, if after a few days of reflection, Sánchez decides to put an end to a legislature that he has pushed forward in recent months despite all the judicial fronts that have been emerging, he would let go of measures agreed with partners that he has not yet materialized. This is the case of the forgiveness of part of the debt of the Autonomous Liquidity Fund (FLA), agreed with ERC to invest the socialist leader in 2023, which has been dragged throughout the legislature. Socialists and republicans had agreed to bring it to a vote this autumn in Congress with the complicity of Junts, which was willing to support it. In this law, Esquerra also wanted to incorporate the change in governance of the Zona Franca Consortium that the party agreed with the PSC for the 2026 budget so that the Generalitat would have the majority. This transfer would also be halted.

The transfer of Rodalies

ERC would also see the transfer of Rodalies come to a halt. The change in the service's ownership had begun to materialize with the creation of the joint venture that was to manage Rodalies and with the first steps for the Generalitat to assume management of the network's first line, the R1. But not only would ERC see its main agreements with the Socialists left in a drawer, but Junts would also not see the Spanish government transfer immigration powers to Catalonia. A pact that it closed with the PSOE in January 2024 without it having become a reality. Nor has the official status of Catalan in the European Union, which Junts also agreed upon with the Socialists, materialized.

The 'juntaires' considered the relationship with the Socialists broken months ago, when they denounced the "non-compliance" of the signed agreements. The amnesty law still remains to be fully applied, but in this case, it is in the hands of the courts. Next week will be key to starting the countdown for the return of Carles Puigdemont. This has, in fact, been the eternal pending subject of Pedro Sánchez's term, who must now decide whether to put an end to a mandate that would conclude with the failure to fulfill most of the key agreements with the Catalan independentists.

The details of the week