It will not be that easy for the leaders of Together for Catalonia (Junts) to explain the support given at the very last moment to Pedro Sánchez, which has allowed the Spanish prime minister to emerge triumphant and jubilant from his first serious enterprise in the Congress of Deputies. And it won't be easy because they themselves had raised expectations that they have not fulfilled, either because of the threats by the Socialists (PSOE), because of a warning of a hypothetical sudden dissolution of the Spanish legislature after the European election or because of a thought, at the last minute, that they had to vote responsibly and that the People's Party (PP) and Vox should not be allowed to win this game. Be that as it may, in the morning Junts had decided that it would vote 'no' to the decrees of the Sánchez government after verbalizing in public and in private that one of the measures put obstacles in the way of the amnesty, undermined the competences of the Catalan government and, also, that they had to show the Spanish executive that they would not accept a style of negotiation in which, as they put it, they were invited to the table with most of the decisions already taken.
They maintained this pretense throughout the morning and the parliamentary intervention of the leader of their parliamentary group, Míriam Nogueras, revealed a clear direction of voting against the decrees. Already at noon, a final negotiation between the PSOE organizational secretary, Santos Cerdán, and, on behalf of Junts, Jordi Turull, from Madrid, with Carles Puigdemont informed from Brussels, apparently amended the negative vote into a stand of non-participation in the voting of the omnibus decree, the one in question. They didn't vote for it, or against it, and even less did they abstain. They simply stopped participating and negotiated a list of compensations in the following hours. The final result was 172 to 171 in favour of the Spanish government. In fact, only Podemos stuck to what it had announced: to second deputy PM Yolanda Díaz, not even an inch of slack. The alternative left party overturned the decree law on social affairs and made it clear that its five MPs have a price and that the leader of Sumar is their opponent and, therefore, she gets not even an inch of laxity.
Junts, in exchange for their vote, were already putting on show, later in the afternoon, something popularly known as a shopping list in which there is a list of new commitments that the PSOE government must fulfill. The selection of issues covered is difficult to assess, both in terms of their commitment and their impact. If everything in the inventory ends up becoming a reality, the return - provisional or definitive - to Catalonia's past habit of peix al cove, of picking the low-hanging fruit, will undoubtedly be seen favourably. Of course, one must also note that there have been so many deals like this in the past that a little prudence is quite reasonable, since the Junts press release will be subject to parliamentary procedures and, in some cases, will also face appeals to the Constitutional Court.
If everything in the inventory ends up becoming a reality, the return - provisional or definitive - to Catalonia's past habit of peix al cove, of picking the low-hanging fruit, will undoubtedly be seen favourably
Thus, it has been agreed to delete Article 43bis of the law on civil trials, which endangered the amnesty. That will have to be done by modifying the decree passed this Wednesday by Congress, in which it appears. The method will have to be another legislative initiative, which even if it is processed as an urgent bill, will take some time, however short. The PSOE has not said anything, but it did say that if this article were deleted, European aid would be put at risk. In fact, that was the basic argument of the presidency and justice minister, Félix Bolaños. Will he really change it? If he does so, won't the PP appeal to the Constitutional Court, over what some have already been calling a classic case of legislative fraud, and will they end up overturning it?
Another important issue is the agreement with the PSOE for the delegation of powers to the Generalitat on immigration, through Article 150.2 of the Constitution and through a specific law for Catalonia. That would be a formula similar to the one used many years ago by José María Aznar and Jordi Pujol to cede powers for traffic policing to Catalonia. The knocking of the knees in the past every time the Socialists have had to cede some power exclusively to Catalonia does not inspire great confidence, but it is obvious that being able to make your own policy in such an important matter would be a quality advance in terms of self-government. It remains to be seen to what extent this delegation of powers by the state is compatible with Article 61 of the Treaty of Lisbon, which speaks of the member states.
Due to the controversy that has existed in recent days, it is also noteworthy that agreement has been reached for the Spanish cabinet to reform the law on capital companies so that it reverses the royal decree passed by the PP in 2017 and allows companies to return to Catalonia. Only the accord on this is listed, without clarifying whether there will be incentives or penalties for the companies that return or for those that do not. In any case, the decree passed by Mariano Rajoy was very timely in terms of leaving and, no doubt, we will now see something else entirely. Finally, the issue of fiscal balances should be highlighted: the official data that makes it possible to calculate them will be published immediately. The issue would be that, as in the time of economy minister Pedro Solbes, it was the Spanish government that published them, but this is not specified.
In summary: Junts has saved Sánchez from a major conflict. In exchange, the PSOE has acquired some commitments with Puigdemont's party. And surely, if there were any wish for all this to end here, the negotiation and especially the explanation could and should have been handled in a different way.