Well it seems it's going to be a no. Miquel Iceta, the all-powerful first secretary of the PSC and, at this time, one of the greatest enemies of the Catalan independence movement due to his active participation in the approval of article 155 of the Constitution, is going to be left without approval as an autonomous community senator1 and, as such, won't be the new speaker of the Spanish Senate. What's happened so that, once again, no agreement has been reached in the back rooms of politics? Basically two things: firstly, the way they announced Iceta's candidacy, making the Catalan Parliament seem like PSOE's management firm. Pedro Sánchez had decided and the Catalan chamber would limit itself to rubber stamping. However, Iceta's candidacy could still have possibly seen success if PSOE's spokesperson in the Congress, Adriana Lastra, had accepted any type of negotiation.
Both in the case of Esquerra and in that of Junts per Catalunya, there was certain room for manoeuvre. The surprise, in any case, for Gabriel Rufián (ERC) has been the close-mindedness towards everything, as if they were perfectly comfortable without his support. There was no margin to negotiate anything, maybe over the imminent municipal and autonomous community elections where PSOE is trying to take over from PP in many important places, or because that's going to be the government's attitude during this new legislature. The same thing has happened to JxCat, with their far greater need to reach agreements as important as, for example, having their own parliamentary group in the Congress and hypothetically the Senate to leave the mixed group in both chambers. For political and economic reasons. It's not a minor matter for a party. They've also received the brush-off.
The latest clash between independence supporters and Socialists has been motivated by the frustrated presence of Oriol Junqueras in the debate between candidates to the European Parliament, which went hand in hand with Carles Puigdemont's absence. Or the participation of Toni Comín and Clara Ponsatí. The interior ministry blocked the first two and the Central Electoral Commission the last two. At that point, the irritation of independence supporters increased since they were only receiving bad treatment and a clearly hostile attitude. On Tuesday evening, Iceta's last glimmer of hope closed, confirmed this Wednesday when all the attempts he made in the pro-independence world proved unfruitful.
Once Iceta's candidacy had been KO'd, coincidence, the public prosecution service that we hadn't heard anything from for days added the crime of criminal organisation for 28 of the 30 Catalan officials charged by Barcelona's court 13, among them the heads of the Catalan Audiovisual Media Corporation (CCMA) and the heads of TV3 and Catalunya Ràdio. It remains curious that each time the wishes of the Spanish government are denied it has an immediate response from prosecutors. But it must be a coincidence.
Translator's note: 1. The majority of Spain's senators are elected directly, four per province. Each autonomous community, however, also gets one extra senator per million residents, voted on by the autonomous community's parliament.