Spain's treasury ministry might not settle with Catalonia the payments it owes (some 1.317 billion euros) unless the courts require it to do so. Minister Montero now has, allegedly, the report from the state's legal advisory service which, on Tuesday, first she said she had before backtracking. The government maintains that whilst it is not confirmed by the Congress it cannot pay this advance and its lawyers, naturally, agree with it.
Nobody will think, except Catalan independence supporters and perhaps Podemos, that it's a new stratagem from Pedro Sánchez's executive. But that executive is willing to create a climate of total blame towards all other parties for not investing it. Podemos in this scheme is a party full of egotists who want to be in the cabinet at any price despite not having any leaders ready for it and, what's more, who would compromise the executive's unity. Too far to the left and the odd flirtation with the pro-independence world, simply not liking to see its leaders in prison.
PP and Ciudadanos are also unsupportive in not abstaining and enabling Sánchez's investiture. Casado's party is constantly reminded that PSOE abstained in a similar situation with Rajoy's investiture. That said, with one minor detail: first the PSOE of González, Rubalcaba and Susana Díaz had to unseat Sánchez as the party's secretary general. Albert Rivera isn't up for it either since he took the definitive step to becoming a right-wing party.
Sánchez applies the corresponding castor oil balm to them all so they soften in the negotiations; and, whilst that happens or doesn't, he tries to appear as the only statesman in the eyes of the public. That said: he never abides by what his second, Carmen Calvo, promises and is even capable of using, in the case of Catalonia, financial suffocation. And if there are problems, call on the state's legal service and job done.