The Catalan separatist party ERC approved this Friday, August 2, an agreement aimed at helping the Spanish socialists form a government in Catalonia, a boost for Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.
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On Friday, in an internal vote, ERC activists approved by 53.5% a preliminary agreement to support the socialists in the formation of a regional government in Catalonia. The result is a yes. “The agreement includes a proposal to grant Catalonia full control over taxes collected in its territory, which has been one of the main demands of the region’s pro-independence parties for decades,” party secretary general Marta Rovira said at a news conference in Barcelona.
The proposal, which still needs to be ratified by the Spanish parliament, has run into hostility from the conservative opposition and some socialists who say it would deprive the central government of a substantial source of revenue. But Pedro Sanchez defended the deal, saying Wednesday that it “ will open a new era in Catalonia, positive for Catalan society and for Spanish society as a whole “If the parties fail to agree on a new head of the Catalan regional government by August 26, new elections will be called in October.
ERC support essential for socialists
To form a government, Salvador Illa will need at least 68 votes in the first round of the Catalan regional parliament or a simple majority in the second round. The support of the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) is essential for the Socialists, who won the most seats in the May elections in this wealthy northeastern region of Spain, but not an absolute majority. The Socialists, led locally by former health minister Salvador Illa, won 42 of the 135 seats in the Catalan regional assembly. The far-left Sumar alliance, the Socialists’ partner in the national governing coalition, won six and the ERC 20.
The possibility of forming a government in Catalonia should validate Pedro Sanchez’s strategy aimed at reducing support for separatism in the region by offering concessions, including a controversial amnesty to those involved in an illegal independence referendum in 2017 that triggered Spain’s worst political crisis in decades.
Socialist Salvador Illa should therefore be invested during a debate in the Catalan Parliament probably next week, an investiture to which Carles Puigdemontthe former Catalan president on the run for 7 years, has promised to attend, despite the arrest warrant still hanging over him, reports our correspondent in Barcelona, Elise Gazengel.
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