With a week to go until the new Spanish Congress and Senate convene, most of the details are sorted. After announcing Miquel Iceta, the leader of the Catalan branch of PSOE, will be speaker in the Senate, assuming he gets the votes to confirm him, now attention turns to leadership positions in the Congress. PSOE is finalising the agreement for the new Board, which it seems is set to leave out the pro-independence Catalan and Basque parties. The Board, which is made up of the Congress speaker, four deputy speakers and four secretaries, is in charge of managing the Congress and its activity for the duration of the legislature.
According to PSOE sources, the current plan is for the Board to be made up of three members of PSOE, two from Unidas Podemos, two from PP and two from Ciudadanos. Their aim is for a "progressive majority" on a "representative" Board. This would leave out, for example, parties like Catalan ERC, which has 15 seats in the new Congress, but also far-right party Vox which has just won its first 24 deputies. The last member of the Board from any of them was Jordi Jané from former party CiU from 2008 to 2015. Negotiations are being led by PSOE spokesperson Adriana Lastra.
According to acting deputy prime minister Carmen Calvo "not all parties have to be" on the Board, only those which come to an agreement between themselves. It's still unknown who will become Congress speaker, although Calvo herself is a favourite.
On the subject of the pro-independence parties possibly not giving Iceta the votes he needs to become Senate speaker, PSOE is clear: they will make no concessions. Sources from the acting government confirmed that today, three days ahead of the vote. "We won't negotiate. Never. Anything," they say.