Post-election talks increase as Esquerra threatens with 'no support' for Socialist presidential bid

The next Catalan president is still uncertain, as no candidate has received enough support to be the territory's leader.

Socialist candidate Salvador Illa, despite winning the election, does not have an absolute majority, and pro-independence Junts+ Carles Puigdemont also needs the support of many parties to be named the next president.

Sources say that the pro-independence Esquerra Republicana (ERC) party is currently negotiating with the Socialists to back Illa as the next president. However, the group wants the deal to take place ahead of August.

"With no clear move towards a financial independence for Catalonia from Spain, there will not be any presidential bid agreement," several leaders of the party, such as secretary general Marta Rovira, and members Josep Maria Jové, Marta Vilalta, Juli Fernández, and Oriol López, wrote in an article in Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia on Monday.

They are all against the Socialists' proposal to recover the joint tax office between Spain and the Catalan government planned in the 2006 Catalan statute.

"Catalonia does not deserve going back to the polls, but it does not deserve a government that does not work on policies for them," the text continues, as they push for the deal to be signed during the last days of July.

"If the Socialist party does comply with the pending agreements and shows a compromise with the next steps needed in Catalonia, we will be able to reach a good agreement," ERC's negotiation team members said.

"It is less than two weeks from the deadline that we set. If this is not the case, we will respectfully leave the post-election talks and invite them to look for alternative majorities," the next concludes.