psc

Esquerra Republicana recruits 14,000 polling agents to make sure there is no “electoral fraud”

The spokeswoman for the Catalan socialists says that there’s no legitimacy in disobeying the law 

Main candidate for PSC says that he doesn't accept “the country model that the pro-independence parties left behind”

Deposed vice president Oriol Junqueras publishes op-ed from prison on Madrid condemning the violence

Local PSC officials openly reject plan to suspend Catalonia’s self rule, while leadership denies party split

One of the most charismatic faces of the Catalan Socialist Party and once contender to Spanish President, Mariano Rajoy, ahead of the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) has died at 46. The news reported his death this Sunday night due to a heart disease she suffered since her childhood. hacón was Spain’s first female ministers during Zapatero’s term of office in 2008, after shortly being Spanish Parliament’s VP and Spanish Minister for Housing. In 2016 she stepped down from PSOE’s Secretary for International Relations. “She left nobody indifferent”, said Catalan Socialist Party leader, Miquel Iceta. “Today we feel more orphan, more lonely and sadder”, he added. Many representatives from the Catalan executive, the PSOE and the Spanish Government have expressed their condolences on Twitter and admitted to be by “devastated” by the news.

Spanish Unionist ‘Ciutadans’ and the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC) will take the budget bill for 2017, which was due to be put to vote this February, to the Council for Statutory Guarantees. The function of the body is to check whether the regulations of the Catalan Government comply with the Catalan Statute of Autonomy and the Spanish Constitution. The spokesperson of ‘Ciutadans’ and PSC in the Parliament considers the items allocated for calling “a new 9-N” to be against both the Catalan Statute of Autonomy and the Spanish Constitution. Moreover, they noted that other budget lines are “unclear” and may be “hidden” in order to ultimately hold the referendum in September 2017, as the Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, has repeatedly announced. 

The Spanish Government is willing to “dialogue” with the Catalan Government, but has closed the door to a self-determination referendum, because it “liquidates the essence of the [Spanish] nation”, said the Spanish Vice President, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, this Wednesday. Requested by the Catalan Socialist MP Meritxell Batet and the spokesman of the Spanish alternative left party Podemos, Iñigo Errejón, to permit reform of the Constitution in order to respond to Catalonia’s independence movement, the politician stated that to do so “requires consensus on the point of departure and arrival”. Furthermore, she stressed the necessity to achieve “an agreement on the diagnosis of the problems and the solutions”, a goal that currently is not possible given the disagreement seen in the Spanish Parliament, she added.

The Catalan Socialist Meritxell Batet will no longer be part of the PSOE Board in the Spanish Parliament. The measure was announced on Thursday by the spokesman of the PSOE interim leadership, Mario Jiménez, and came after theparty held a two-hour meeting to decide the measures against the 15 MPs, including the seven members of the PSC, that broke voting discipline and rejected Rajoy’s investiture. Batet’s post as Deputy Secretary General will remain unoccupied until negotiations between the Catalan and the Spanish socialist branches “come to an end”, Jiménez said. After the announcement, Batet stated that she “accepts and respects” the decision, despite not sharing it, and that she would have preferred for the issue not to have been tackled “in this way”.

If new elections were to be called in Catalonia today, the winner would be governing cross-party pro-independence ‘Junts Pel Sí’, which would still have between 60 and 62 seats in the 135-seat Parliament. Spanish Unionist ‘Ciutadans’, which is currently the main party in the opposition with 25 MPs would get between 15 and 21 seats. The highest increase according to a poll released this Friday would be for alternative left alliance ‘Catalunya Sí que es Pot’ (CSQP) which would get 19-20 MPs compared to the 11 seats it currently has in the Chamber. On the other hand, radical left pro-independence CUP would drop from 10 seats to 6-8. Regarding pro-independence support amongst Catalans, the poll shows a return to the tie situation which has been the most common result of the polls. Thus, 44.9% of Catalans would support independence, while 45.1% would vote against it.

The Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) and its partner in Catalonia (PSC) will create a committee made up of members from both parties to “tackle their relationship problems” and resolve the situation “as soon as possible”. According to PSC’s leader, Miquel Iceta, the committee will have to “evaluate and review if necessary” the relationship between the  parties, established in 1978. According to Javier Fernández, president of the interim managing committee which has led PSOE since last October, the fact that PSC broke the party line and refused to facilitate Mariano Rajoy’s investiture in October was “not serious” nor “democratic”. Indeed, many members of PSOE want PSC out of the Federal Committee and for them not to be able to participate in the Spanish Parliament. The tension between PSOE and PSC reached its height on the 29^th of October during the Spanish investiture debate, when 15 Socialist MPs said ‘no’ to Mariano Rajoy’s investiture, among whom were the seven MPs of the PSC. 

Tensions between the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) and the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC) over the Spanish investiture will not break their relationship, according to both parties. Seven Catalan Socialist MPs voted last Saturday against Rajoy’s reelection, breaking ranks with the main Spanish party, which abstained, and prompting sanctions against them. However, the PSOE interim leadership expressed on Wednesday its commitment to a “balanced and symmetrical” relation with the Catalan Socialists. The PSC leader, Àngel Ros, stated in similar terms that his party does not plan to change its relationship with the PSOE despite the disciplinary proceedings against the MPs that decided not to abstain. The Catalan Socialist MPs have always argued that they voted ‘no’ to Rajoy “according to their conscience”.

Current Spanish President and Conservative People’s Party (PP) leader, Mariano Rajoy, will be reinvested as President of the Spanish Government next Saturday. Although the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) has announced that it is going to vote ‘no’ in the first round of the debate on investiture, this Wednesday afternoon, the party explained on the 23^rd of October, after its federal committee, that it will abstain and facilitate the PP to form government in the second round. Currently the PSOE has faced tensions with the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC), which on Tuesday approved a resolution to say ‘no’ to Rajoy’s investiture in the second vote. Despite the Catalan Socialists’ opposition and the opposition of some other independent MPs and the former PSOE leader, Pedro Sánchez, Mariano Rajoy is likely to be sworn in on Saturday, putting an end to 10 months of political blockade in Spain.   

“We will disobey and we are willing to face the consequences”, stated this Monday Catalan Socialist Party (PSC) leader, Miquel Iceta. He was referring to the PSC’s will to say ‘no’to the reinvestiture of current Spanish President Mariano Rajoy, in opposition to the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) position, who agreed in its federal committee this Sunday to abstain and facilitate the Conservative People’s Party (PP) to form government. “We will vote the same way as the other Socialists in the first round, but in the second one we will vote ‘no’, regardless of how the othersvote”, he assured in an interview with Catalan radio Rac1. Iceta also referred to the current relationship between PSOE and the Catalan Socialists. Although he believes that keeping the current scenario is “the best”solution, he admitted that PSOE “has the right”to reconsider the relationship with PSC.  

The PSC, the Catalan branch of the Spanish Socialist Party have insisted on their ‘no’ to reinstating current Spanish President, Mariano Rajoy. “We can’t betray our principles”, stated this Monday one of the candidates to lead PSC in the upcoming primary elections, Núria Parlon. In a clear move to differentiate themselves from the overall Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) position, which is to abstain in the upcoming investiture debate and allow the formation of a government in Spain, the PSC emphasised their “commitment to the citizens’ mandate” and their predisposition to offer “an alternative government to that of the Conservative People’s Party (PP)”. The Catalan Socialists expressed their position after the resignation of PSOE’s leader, Pedro Sánchez, who stepped down on Saturday after a week of turmoil within the Spanish Socialist Party.