ERC is already reaching out to Sanchez to negotiate her installation

ERC spokeswoman Marta Vilalta opened the door on Monday to negotiate a new inauguration of Pedro Sanchez, with the conditions already announced by the Republicans in the campaign: ending the fiscal deficit in Catalonia, obtaining a Rodalí transfer with the necessary resources and maintaining the dialogue until there is progress on the road to self-determination and a referendum. Vilalta stressed that “independents hold the key to the future”, because the PSOE will need their votes to repeat the inauguration of Pedro Sánchez, reach out to Gontes to implement a common strategy and “defend the interests of Catalonia, something that cannot be achieved with the blockade” of the inauguration he advocated post-convergence.

Regarding the results of this general election, Vilalta had no choice but to “self-criticize”, in the face of what was a new stumbling block for the Republicans, who lost 400,000 votes compared to the November 2019 elections, and remained with seven of the thirteen seats they gained in Congress in this last legislature. The ERC was the number one force in the April general election and repeated in November 2019, and this 23-J remained the fourth force in the vote, behind the Socialists, Commoners and the People’s Party. “These are bad results, it was not what we expected or wanted,” he said.

Installation terms

The IER calls for an end to the fiscal deficit in Catalonia, the transfer of Rodalez with a budget and progress in the negotiations on the referendum

However, as is customary in evaluating election results, Villalta contained the damage and attributed the loss of ERC votes, as a first factor, to “the danger perceived by the electorate in the face of the reactionary wave” posed by the People’s Party and the Vox bloc, which led to “voting for the progressive forces of Spanish obedience”, referring to the socialists and the public.

Vilalta also noted, and this would be a second factor that had an impact on the ERC’s poor results, that its formation “assumes the cost” of the negotiation strategy and agreements with the coalition government. “We bear the cost of leading and exercising the responsibilities of the state with the logical mistakes we commit and we are working to correct them,” he stressed. In this sense, it has ensured that mistakes will be an opportunity for improvement. “With our call for continuous learning, we will work hard to win back the trust of those who did not vote for us this time,” he said.

And in a letter to Guntes, he emphasized that “independence has the key to reversing the balance” on the platform drawn by the 23 ballot boxes. There are possibilities for building an alternative majority from progress. And the ERC will be there, with the will to agree, to stop PP and Vox and defend the interests of Catalonia “, which does not happen, he emphasized, due to the investment blocking strategy that Junts defends.