There is no doubt that, given the damage that a repeat election would have caused, the agreement announced on Monday between ERC and JxCat to form a coalition government is good news. However, neither of the two parties can be happy with how talks had gone until the decisive meetings of this weekend, and, in fact, both have apologised to the public. The fact is that at this stage of the negotiations, and seeing the parties' inability to come to an agreement, many people had switched off from politics and disaffection is growing. New elections would have been a coin toss with a very uncertain outcome.

The deadlock in the negotiations to form a government between JxCat and ERC, which was confirmed this Tuesday in a meeting in Parliament between both parties' negotiating teams, makes the possibility of a repeat election more likey. This is highly irresponsible taking into account the situation that the country is going through and poses a very serious risk for the sovereigntist majority. Voters are increasingly disappointed with parties, annoyed with a soap which is becoming increasingly difficult to explain and understand, even for journalists. It is incomprehensible that two parties that have shared a government since 2015 (first with CDC and then with JxCat) and that knew that there would be early elections over a year ago have been unable to agree on a coalition agreement. There is no excuse. No argument to justify it. And even more so when the third relevant party, CUP, previously considered an element of instability, was able to reach an agreement.

Article by Grup Pròleg*

Three people will have to go to Barcelona's High Court next week because in the municipal and European elections of May 26, 2019 they were called on to fulfil their electoral duty by manning a poll station and, according to the Prosecutor's Office, failed to turn up. In all three cases the prosecutor requests they pay a fine, but the amounts are nothing alike: in one case it is €2,700, in another €4,500 and in the third €7,200, despite the fact that they all allegedly committed the same crime: not turning up without justification. This disparity reflects that there is no homogeneous criterion of the Prosecutor's Office - nor of the courts - on this crime, which makes it feel like Russian roulette.