Salvador Illa and his partners for the investiture, ERC and Comuns, will not allow the procedural situation of Carles Puigdemont to be postponed without the and ends up sinking the debate in the Parliament in which his presidency should be voted on. According to sources from the parties involved, they all agree that an arrest of the former president will mean suspending the plenary session, but also that this postponement should not be extended beyond next Monday.
Following Carles Puigdemont’s announcement that he has begun his return journey, Salvador Illa assumes that, although his investiture is scheduled for this Thursday and he has the majority of the votes in the Parliament, it will still take a little longer for him to become president. However, the PSC’s wish is for the plenary session to resume “as soon as possible”, the party explains.
The Socialists have suggested to their partners that, although Thursday could end up being a non-working day following Puigdemont’s arrest, the investiture could resume on Friday or Saturday. These are dates that ERC and the Comuns do not rule out from the start, although both parties consider that it is imperative that, whether he is free or in preventive detention, the plenary session resumes once Puigdemont’s situation is stable.
There are several reasons why the partners, especially Esquerra, insist on this. The first is because of the similarity with the investitures of Quim Torra or Pere Aragonès, both voted with deputies in prison. In addition, they want the leader of Junts to have been able to delegate his vote, if he wishes to do so, for which they need him to have complete freedom to communicate with his group.
No less important for ERC is trying to reduce the pressure from the street and from the whole of the independence movement that supports Puigdemont, even more so since the former president has previously blamed the Republicans for any consequences that his return may have.
The Socialists, who have maintained contacts throughout the day with ERC and Comuns, understand the reasons given by their partners and wish to act with the greatest possible consensus within the Parliament. In fact, the PSC’s aspiration is that Junts and the president of the Chamber, Josep Rull, also agree to resume the investiture without delay, after an initial suspension on Thursday.
However, if this does not happen and Junts or the presidency try to delay the suspension, all the partners in the investiture would be activated, forcing the convening of the Permanent Deputation and setting a plenary session again. According to the latest conversations, which are still ongoing, the latest date to take this step would be Monday, with the aim of forming the Government in the following days.
No later than August 16th
In the contacts between the parties it has also become clear that in no way can it wait beyond 16 August, when the powers of the Permanent Deputation fall and the President of the Parliament recovers a certain – but never total – power of discretion.
In his appearance before the Permanent Deputation on Wednesday, the head of the House has stated that he could not “accept that the plenary session develop normally” if Puigdemont were arrested. But he has not said anything about what would happen in the following days.
Josep Rull has a good institutional image and, in principle, Illa’s supporters trust that he will not strain the rules in favour of a boycott of the plenary session. Therefore, Illa’s first step after a suspension would be to inform him that he wants to return to the plenary session without delay. But, if Rull finally succumbs to the pressures of his own party, PSC, ERC and Comuns would activate the plan to force a Permanent Deputation and, as soon as possible, a new debate.
Source: www.eldiario.es
