ERC threatens Sánchez with voting no to the anti-crisis decree: “Ask Mr. Casero for the phone”

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  • Sánchez promises to work with “transparency” and “objectivity” to clarify the alleged espionage, but does not go beyond the Government’s discourse these days

  • The president asks for the explicit support of the PP to save the validation of the shock plan against the war

“For now, ask for Mr. [Alberto] Casero”. Those words were hardly enough for the ERC spokesman in Congress, Gabriel Rufián, to directly warn Pedro Sánchez that his group can vote against this Thursday, in just 24 hours, of the royal decree law in response to the consequences of the war. The invocation of Casero meant going back to last February 3, when the Government saved the validation of the labor reform by a miracle, thanks to the error of that PP deputy. The Executive finds itself once again before the abyss, with the risk of losing a key vote, another one, in the legislature, in this case due to the growing tension with the independentistas on account of the ‘Catalangate’.

Rufián’s question gave the president the opportunity to speak publicly for the first time about the ‘Pegasus case’, the scandal of alleged massive espionage on sovereignist leaders and activists committed, according to Citizen Lab, between 2017 and 2020. Sánchez had not done in these ten long days in which the controversy has been growing without the Executive having managed to stop it. quite the opposite.

And this Wednesday did not provide any news in the arguments of the Executive, beyond the promise, already verbalized by his ministers, to act with “transparency” and “objectivity” so that the facts are clarified, because he is aware that it is an issue ” serious” and that affects a vital artery for the democratic system, the National Intelligence Center (CNI), which he indirectly recognized as the author of the monitoring at two key moments, 2017 and 2019, in the hot autumn of the ‘procés’ and with the disturbances that followed the sentence of the ‘procés’. But Sánchez offered neither commission of investigation nor resignations, as the independentistas demand. What he did do, given that his partners are turning towards the no, is to explicitly ask the PP for its support for the anti-crisis decree.

Rufián, during his question to the Chief Executive, assumed that the State “has spied, spies and will spy illegally”, because that is what the “Interior officials” of the PSOE and PP have told him “in the last 40 years ” in three investigation commissions. “The question is not if there has been spying here, it is if this time you ordered it,” said the Republican spokesman. “And if they ordered it, it is terribly serious, and if they did not order it, it is even more terribly serious, because it means that they have not cleaned its sewers, and the sewers fill with rats, and the rats eat everything.”

“Alternative center… penitentiary”

ERC has the “suspicion” that the president “does not like” neither his party, nor Bildu, nor Compromís, nor Más País, nor PDECat, nor perhaps his partners from United We Can. “Nothing happens… say it and you have an alternative, the PP, a center… penitentiary. Now, your voters have to know.” Rufián stressed that his formation’s commitment to “words, dialogue and negotiation” is “granite”, because it is the “ideology of the normal, of the more versus the less”. Thus, he distanced himself from the threat of a total rupture of the ERC with the Executive. But that does not mean that it does not take its toll. And it can happen tomorrow, Thursday, in the vote on the shock plan against the consequences of the war. “For now, ask for Mr. Casero’s phone number,” he finished, clearly implying that, if there are no changes in the Government’s attitude, ERC will repeat its vote against a decree law. And if ERC drags Bildu, a group with which they usually coordinate, only the PP could save the text with its abstention, since Ciudadanos has already advanced its no.

Sánchez agreed that the ‘Catalangate’ is a “serious issue” and stressed that the Executive has expressed its willingness to “clarify the facts with transparency, objectivity, accountability and adhering to the law.” He repeated the four ways proposed to the Government on Sunday by Minister Félix Bolaños: internal control of the CNI; provide all the precise data to the Ombudsman, who has opened a parallel investigation; unblocking of the official secrets commission to share in a “plural” way, with all the groups, the reserved information, and declassification of all the documents that the Justice requires.

But Sánchez also implicitly acknowledged that Spanish intelligence did monitor the independence movement. The Government, which has shown its “firm will for dialogue”, stresses that there were “difficult moments” in the relationship with Catalonia. In 2017, with the 1-O referendum, the unilateral declaration of independence and the flight of Carles Puigdemont, and in 2019, with the “reaction in the streets” to the Supreme Court ruling against the leaders of the ‘procés’. The Executive “demonstrates with facts that it wants to overcome the crisis of 2017 and 2019,” he reiterated, thus pointing out the reasons why the State did closely follow the movements of the independentistas. “Everything that has been done by the CNI is scrupulously and rigorously adhering to the law, and we have demonstrated our absolute availability to collaborate with the Justice by declassifying the papers if required.”

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Sánchez sought to appease ERC after his warning to stop supporting his legislative agenda. In fact, the president extended his hand to Rufián: “I would ask him to rebuild that trust and reinforce what is making the reunion possible in Catalan society, which is dialogue.” For now, the socialist leader does not point to more steps, despite pressure from his partners.

Sánchez began his response to Rufián on the wrong foot, calling him “Mr. [Santiago] Abascal”, confusion that was explainable because the immediately previous question had been asked by the leader of Vox. The president immediately apologized: “There are unforgivable lapses and this is it.” “Mr. President, let them spy on me okay, but call me Abascal already annoys me,” the ERC spokesman replied ironically.



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