ERC rules out agreement for return of Puigdemont

As the Spanish government is not interested in an agreement to allow Carles Puigdemont to return and take office as Catalan president, Together for Catalonia (JxCat) should come up with a viable alternative. That is according to Sergi Sabrià, spokesman for the pro-independence ERC party, in an interview with the Catalan news agency yesterday. “We all take it as read that the proposal to reach an agreement with the State is going nowhere and that another way has to be found,” he said.

Sabrià also pointed out that time is running out for JxCat, with 10 days left until the Catalan parliament holds a session to constitute a new government, when at least a basic agreement between the pro-independence parties needs to be in place. The ERC spokesman agrees with JxCat that the State will hope to exploit any differences between the two parties. However, Sabrià insisted that there would be no need to repeat the election: “We will find the solution to the investiture and we will be able to defend the institutions from the institutions,” he said.

In fact, the ERC spokesman did not completely rule out JxCat’s proposal to support Puigdemont’s investiture at a distance, should the party put it on the table, as long as the parliamentary majority “is not put at risk.”