pablo iglesias

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Quim Torra meets with Pablo Iglesias, who stresses shared “republican values” as guarantee of Catalan-Spanish cooperation

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The leader of Podemos, Pablo Iglesias, admitted on Friday that “all democrats should be scared” at the tone that the current Spanish President, Mariano Rajoy, is using with Catalonia. After Rajoy and other members of his cabinet accused the Catalans of planning a “coup d’état” for organizing an independence referendum, Iglesias said that the Spanish conservatives “are capable of anything”. “It would be counter-productive to use force” against the Catalan Government, warned Iglesias, who accused the PP of not being “up to the task” of leading Spain and facing its “multinational reality”. In an interview with radio RAC1, Iglesias said that calling a unilateral referendum on independence in Catalonia is a “legitimate” option but insisted that only a “legal” vote with “international recognition” would allow the Catalans to really become independent.

The leader of the People’s Party, Mariano Rajoy, lost two confidence votes in the Spanish Parliament this week with 170 votes in favour and 180 against. Spain will therefore continue to have an interim government after eight months of political standstill and amid growing speculation over a possible new election on Christmas Day. “I am not asking you to form a coalition, I am asking you to let me govern”, said Mariano Rajoy to the Socialist leader, Pedro Sánchez during a debate in Madrid. The PSOE, the radical left-wing coalition Unidos Podemos and the Catalan and Basque nationalists voted against the PP government plans, which had the support of liberal Ciutadans (C’s). But despite calls from Podemos´ leader in favour of an alternative left-wing coalition, the PSOE is unlikely to accept, as such a government would need the support of pro-independence parties in Catalonia.

The Spanish King has signed this Tuesday the decree calling an early election in Spain. The main political parties have been unable to reach an agreement to form a stable government and so for the first time since the restoration of democracy, the Spanish Congress will be dissolved only five months after a general election. The calling of early elections has been an open secret since last week, when the King already said that he was not going to offer the leader of any political party the task of trying to form a government. Neither conservative Mariano Rajoy nor socialist Pedro Sánchez have the necessary support to win an investiture debate. Sánchez tried to achieve the support of Congress for a government led by him and C’s but was defeated. Rajoy, the current president, did not even try.

The Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, and Spanish alternative left ‘Podemos’Secretary General, Pablo Iglesias, met this Friday at Palau de la Generalitat. Iglesias assured before the media that he transmitted to Puigdemont his “compromise regarding the celebration of a referendum in Catalonia” which is “the best solution to the current deadlock”. “Catalan society has to decide and the vast majority of Catalans want to do so”, he stated. The Catalan government’s spokeswoman, Neus Munté, explained the content of the meeting to the media and emphasised “Puigdemont’s intention to keep the roadmap”towards independence “which will continue to be developed”regardless of the negotiations to form a new government in Spain. The meeting comes one day after the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE), Spanish Unionist ‘Ciutadans’and Podemos met to discuss a possible triple agreement to form an alternative government to that currently ruling in Spain, composed by the conservative People’s Party (PP). 

Spanish Socialist leader Pedro Sánchez has failed in his effort to be invested in the first round of the Spanish Investiture debate. He only obtained the support 130 MPs in the 350-seats Spanish Parliament. The 90 MPs from Sánchez’s own party, Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) and the 40 from Unionist Ciutadans voted in favour, the MP from Canary Coalition (CC) abstained from voting and all the other parties, including the current governing party, conservative People’s Party, alternative left Podemos and Catalan pro-independence parties ERC and ‘Democràcia i Llibertat’ voted against his investiture. The next round in voting will take place on Friday. During the investiture debate, Sánchez invited PP and Podemos to join his alliance with Ciutadans and assured that he will “never” accept a referendum in Catalonia as it would be “the worst way” to break Spain apart. For his part, Catalan President Carles Puigdemont stated that Sánchez’s failure confirms that there is no alternatSive for Catalonia other than to push for independence.

The Spanish Socialist Party, PSOE, will “tackle its legitimate responsibility” to offer an alternative government to the ruling People’s Party but not “at any price”. “We won’t dialogue on questions such as territorial integrity” warned PSOE’s leader Pedro Sánchez. “The coexistence crisis in Catalonia will only be solved with a constitutional reform and not with a referendum on breaking Spain apart” as this would be “the start of new breakdowns”, he stated. In relation to this, Sánchez assured that PSOE won’t reach any agreement with any party which supports a referendum, referring to alternative left Podemos. “We are for the right to decide but for all Spanish citizens”, he stated and assured that the “brightest pages in Spain’s history” have been written through dialogue. 

In order to outline their support for the celebration of a referendum in Catalonia, Spanish alternative left Podemos added a paragraph to its political programme for the upcoming 20-D Spanish elections. Initially, the text didn’t mention the word “referendum”and just referred to “the rights of the autonomic governments to hold consultations amongst the citizens regarding the territorial fitting”. This is still stated in the programme but they have now made clear their commitment to “promote the celebration of a referendum with legal guarantees in Catalonia so that the citizens could choose the kind of territorial relationship that they would like to establish with Spain”. The programme also outlines the party’s will to evaluate and debate the experiences of the UK and Scotland and Canada and Quebec.