The Spanish Socialists (PSOE) plan to register the text of the amnesty bill in the coming days and to hold the investiture debate and vote on Pedro Sánchez next week, according to party sources this Tuesday at the constitutional oath taken by princess Leonor. The registration of the draft text for the legislation would take place before the investiture debate and would be carried out jointly with Sumar, Catalan Republican Left (ERC), Together for Catalonia (Junts), Basque independentists EH Bildu and the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) and Galician nationalists BNG, once the agreement with these parliamentary groups has been finalised. That is to say, the implication is that now only the "details" of the negotiation with Carles Puigdemont's Junts party remain, with the agreement still to be closed with ERC and the PNV. All this, after the meeting of Santos Cerdán with the president in exile this Monday - which showed the progress made in the negotiations.
The PSOE has clarified that there is still "nothing finalised", but they were optimistic about the possibility that the investiture session will take place next week in the Congress of Deputies. "From Sunday on, any day is good," they stated. Along these lines, they commented that the speaker of Congress, Francina Armengol, plans to announce the date this week - coinciding with this Friday's meeting of Congress's Bureau. This means that there would be the option of calling the investiture session for November 7th and 8th. "It's a matter of days," added sources close to the speaker of Congress.
When would Sánchez's investiture debate be?
It should be noted that on Tuesday, November 7th, a plenary session of the Senate is scheduled. In addition, king Felipe Vi and his wife will be on an official trip to Denmark between Monday 6th and Wednesday 8th. The calendar suggests that the investiture debate could take place on November 8th and 9th, a public holiday in the city of Madrid. It would thus be Thursday when Armengol could be expected to have her required visit to the Zarzuela royal palace to inform Felipe VI of the result of the vote, once the debate had been held and the monarch had returned from his trip. Notably, the PSOE are confident that it will not have to go to a second ballot, which would be avoided if Sánchez received affirmative votes from all the Socialists' partners on the first vote, and thus there would be no need for a second vote 48 hours later.
The Socialists have also indicated that it is "natural" that the registration of the legislative text would be conducted jointly, since there are "56 MPs" among the pro-independence parties who have asked for an amnesty law, and the PSOE supports it. In any case, the intention is to communicate the deal when the agreements with all the necessary groups have been sealed. In fact, the sources within the party stated that it will be a pact for the legislature in order to give continuity to the coalition government with Sumar. "When we see the pact, we will see the parts where everyone has made compromises. It's not a matter of compromising, but of reaching agreement," they said.
There will be no photo of Sánchez with Puigdemont
However, the PSOE has not clarified how it will formalize the agreement or whether it will do so jointly or with each of the groups. There are still "details" to be worked out, both with Junts and with the other parties that have not yet given the definitive "yes" to Sánchez's investiture. As has already been stated, the Socialists do not contemplate sealing the pact with a joint photo or phone call involving Sánchez and Puigdemont and they affirm that this has never been "the subject of debate" between the PSOE and Junts. Regarding concessions, they have said that the agreement required concessions by all parties and that they understand that it is the Spanish government that must compromise the most in order to obtain the support of those who will be its parliamentary partners. "It's about making possible the reconciliation between Catalonia and Spain," they added.
Finally, if the Socialist sources said that "any day is good, from Sunday on" it is because of the consultation of the PSOE membership on the basis of the pact with Sumar and the pro-independence parties. They affirm that not having the results of this poll yet does not affect the speaker of Congress's possible move to call the plenary next week. Thus, they reiterate that the date of the debate could be known this week.