With a week having passed since Spain’s July 23rd election, the main cards for the start of a negotiation are now on the table. First, the result is now final after the Central Electoral Commission counted the votes cast from abroad, province by province, leaving the following picture: 171 deputies in the left bloc with Pedro Sánchez and 172 in that of the right led by Alberto Núñez Feijóo; leaving the seven Together for Catalonia (Junts) deputies having to vote yes if they are to allow the investiture of a left-wing prime minister, since abstention is, as of now, insufficient.
Second: Carles Puigdemont’s Junts party has expressed its willingness to negotiate a political agreement for the investiture that must include a solution to the conflict between Catalonia and Spain. This agreement must be public and serve as a road map during the legislature. Obviously, not everything can be resolved on the first day, but making public the agreements that are reached will serve as a road map. Junts will not accept verbal agreements made in a café, as has been explained by way of example. There is a date on the horizon that should be taken into account: on November 17th, the trial begins at Spain’s public auditing tribunal, the Court of Accounts, for the alleged diversion of public funds for the external promotion of Catalan independence, with thirty former high officials accused, among them, Carles Puigdemont himself.
