LSpain could end 2019 with a government. Pedro Sanchez seems closer to Moncloa than he was a few days ago. The leader of the PSOE, who emerged victorious from the November 10 elections, but with fewer seats than he had until February, a few days ago closed the deal with Podemos. Sanchez granted Pablo Iglesias what he had always refused to grant him until a few weeks earlier: a vice-presidency and some ministries, including that of Labour.
Everything ok, then? No, or at least not yet. Psoe and Podemos only get 155 seats, 21 short of the necessary majority. To govern Sanchez will therefore need the abstention or the support of the other small left-wing parties, but above all of the Catalan separatists of ERC (13 seats), the same ones who brought down his government only 10 months ago, during the vote of investiture.
Secondo El Pais the two sides would be close to an understanding, at the center of which there would be the fate of the Catalan party leader Oriol Junqueras, sentenced by the Spanish courts to 13 years in prison and expulsion from public office for organizing the referendum on the independence of Catalonia. On 19 December, the pro-independence leader, elected to the EU Parliament in May, was the subject of a historic sentence by the European Court of Justice. According to the community judges, being a European parliamentarian, Junqueras enjoys immunity and therefore must be immediately released. The decision to release him obviously does not belong to the PSOE, but what the ERC is asking is that "the central government make a gesture of goodwill by supporting the sentence of the EU Court", explains El Pais.
In addition to the Junqueras case, Psoe and Erc are reportedly working on a document that establishes the rules for a future dialogue between the central and Catalan governments.
Sanchez seems sure he can do it and for this reason congressional officials have already thought about what would be the first day for the investiture vote. The first vote could be held on December 28th. Sanchez in this context will need an absolute majority. In the probable case that the second vote, by simple majority (more yes than no), would not succeed, it would be held on December 30 and with ERC's abstention, the Government would be in the drawer.
