ERC's secretary general, Marta Rovira, is focused on the presidential investiture debate for Carles Puigdemont which the pro-independence parties want to carry out. But, in an interview with ACN (Catalan News Agency), she made it clear that she does not want the process to mean that any politicians end up in court or prison if investiture is not effective. She argued that the postponement of the debate, originally planned for this Tuesday, offers the opportunity to find the best procedure to avoid such legal complications for the Parliament's deputies.
"Gaining a few days to achieve an investiture which can take effect is what really guarantees us [the chance] to recover the institutions [of Catalonia], not ruin the pro-independence majority in the Parliament and not end up having negative legal effects for many deputies", she said, "it's obvious that we're prepared to assume all the necessary risks, as long as the political decisions we take mean the country moves forward". Rovira said that "working hard" is the "best way to continue on our path" and mean that no one has to take on any "unnecessary risks without any effective result on the table".
Plan for governing
She added that it's important that the investiture is accompanied by a plan for governing that covers the whole of the new legislature, that the conversations between the pro-independence parties, JuntsxCat, ERC and CUP are not only about how to hold the investiture. The conversations, she said, have to lead to "forging a strategy about how we continue on the path of the last legislature". "It's the main challenge we're facing: when we've carried out a real and effective investiture, how we set to work."
Rovira said that "conversations are advanced" on such a plan for what the next government will do, but admitted that "it's still not definitively agreed". This meant that, when the decision to delay the investiture was taken, "we were lacking a global agreement, which didn't just cover the investiture [in terms of] having all guarantees and being effective, but also covered the whole legislature". In her opinion, they "owe" the public such a plan.
She said that she is "convinced" that in the "coming days" the pro-independence parties will be able to "take advantage of [their] parliamentary majority to find the way to conclude an agreement".