Although of clearly different political dimensions, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the leader of the People's Party, and Catalan president Pere Aragonès are being tested this Tuesday by their respective legislative chambers. The former, in his impossible path towards an investiture which he attends with only 172 votes in favour, lacking four votes for the absolute majority that would take him to the Moncloa palace. The second, with a more than striking political minority, approaches a general policy debate with only his 33 MPs, out of the 135 which make up the Catalan Chamber, and will have to juggle so that the broad opposition, led by Catalan socialists and Junts, do not leave him in a clear minority in the resolutions to be approved on Friday.
Feijóo goes to parliament to demand his investiture, with the only support of Vox's MPs. His line of reasoning during the debate is more than clear: Pedro Sánchez has put his interests ahead of Spain's and is willing to make all kinds of concessions to the pro-independence movement and especially to Catalan president in exile Carles Puigdemont to continue four more years in the Moncloa palace. Hence the talks of amnesty or verifying the agreements reached, two matters which are far from being closed, although the path to them is being paved.
In any case, it is obvious that Puigdemont's shadow will be more present than ever in the Spanish Congress debate, as was the case last Sunday in the People's Party's political act held in Madrid. In the last hours, the PP has reduced its calls for a handful of socialist MPs to become turncoats after the widespread criticism it received, and not only from the left, as the right, in its desperation, crossed in this issue a dangerous line.
Here, in the Catalan Parliament, Aragonès will also be tested on some of his political proposals. Specifically two: the health of the Dialogue Table with the PSOE that he himself led and in which only Esquerra's ministers took part, since the Junts delegation was vetoed for having political prisoners among its members, and the Clarity Agreement, proposed just a year ago as his main proposal in the last general policy debate, which was aimed at achieving the definitive referendum. To this end, he appointed an advisory council made up of nine academics of which not much is known and which, no doubt, he will want to explain.
But beyond these two initiatives, considered of great importance for Aragonès, it will also be interesting to see how he deals with the political minority of his government a year after the departure of Junts from the Catalan government, following the expulsion of its vice-president and accusations of non-compliance with the investiture agreements. After the elections held last July, there were intense rumours that ERC could try to recompose the Catalan executive with its former partners, but there has never been any record of Aragonès making such a proposal. Perhaps ERC tried or saw that Junts is not interested in such an operation at the moment, and prefers to keep things the way they are until the new Catalan elections.