new government, old politics and the need to turn everything around.
Pedro Sánchez has been invested as president of Spain with 179 votes in favor of the PSOE, summer, ERC, together, PNV, Eh Bildu, BNG and Coalition Cantaría contra 171 of the PP, Vox and Union of the Navarrese People. With practically the same partners, social democracy has formed two consecutive governments and their respective Legislatures. Since the elections of 23 from July until the investiture session of the 16 of November, a crisis that has historical roots, it feeds back, It continues its course and will have new chapters. On this occasion the crux of the discrepancies was in the investiture pact with the Catalan Independence Party., centrally by the amnesty law.
Sánchez negotiated the amnesty law with ERC and Junts, that is, with Oriol Junqueras and, mainly, with the ex-president Catalan Carles Puigdemont in exile. The amnesty is partial because it will reach 250 O 300 processed, including the main pro-independence leaders, while there are more than 3000 activists prosecuted, political and union prisoners who will not benefit from the rule and are included 73 cops. further, It remains to be seen what limitations will be imposed by the judges involved who, from the most retrograde levels, have expressed themselves against the amnesty.. The signatories have such distrust that they adopted the figure of "speakers" as mediators to guarantee compliance with what was agreed. Que haya amnistía, even if it is partial, es una conquista que alegra por los luchadores que serán beneficiados, dejando en claro que no se debe a las habilidades negociadoras de Junts y ERC, sino que producto de los reclamos masivos que antes habían forzado a que los opresores den indultos y ahora hicieron insostenible la política de la persecución pura y dura como a venían ejecutando.
In the task of “turn the page” of self-determination, The PSOE is doing better than its predecessor the PP. With the tactic of "carrot" in replacement of “garrote” of the 155, with a fictitious Dialogue Table, dubious promises and limited concessions achieved its best votes in Catalonia, The PSC won the Barcelona City Council and Independenceism regressed socially. For the right and the extreme right, the pact “it is unconstitutional”, “a coup d'état” and “a surrender” before those who “they want to divide Spain”. For Sánchez it is a “historic agreement” what “demonstrates the strength and validity of the 1978 Constitution”. For Puigdemont “It is a historic opportunity”. For Oriol Junqueras and Pere Aragonés “…the one that wins is Catalonia”.
For us, he investiture process has shown a pitiful spectacle to the point of indifference and satiety. Alberto Núñez Feijóo (PP) starred in an investiture farce that was destined to fail from the presentation of the titles. The far-right of Vox brought out all its fascist pathos. Sánchez backed away from previous promises and negotiated in secret without any concern. The “progressives” supported the pact without asking Sánchez to eliminate the Gag Law or to remember the commitments to eliminate the labor reform, nor that he takes the side of Western Sahara as one of the conditions to support it, They only care about government positions. And nationalisms did not even attempt to present common protest positions., His specialty is sitting down to ask for economic concessions from the powerful in power..
Social and political polarization was tense to the extreme with demonstrations divided by yes or no to the amnesty. The conservative sectors of society and the most recalcitrant fascist groups came to light. Except for some exceptions, The mass media spurred polarization in favor of the right and continue to confuse the population. In the Kingdom of Reverse, the PP and Vox mobilized massively and the extreme right called for a general strike. The reformists of the PSOE, We can, summer, IU and others gave the street to the reactionaries. The leaders of UGT and CC. AND. They were a transmission belt for this demobilizing policy that prevented the popular sectors and the working class from breaking out with a program of their own social and political demands..
A weak government has emerged, because justice is divided, the main parties of the regime are at odds, There will be a tense and complex legislature and the crisis of the capitalist economy continues to develop. Although it is a government of continuity, presents different equations since in the distribution of positions to the minor members of the PSOE, Podemos has been left out of the ministries, not so Add and UI. The future predicts more instability and crisis than the resolution of Spain's historical problems.
The only thing that ERC and Junts do is fight to see who of the two appears as the best negotiator with the oppressors. Between October 2017 and November 2023 The leaders of the Catalan majority parties moved from a Unilateral Declaration of Independence (DUI) how hard 44 seconds before she was suspended to seek to negotiate with Mariano Rajoy, to propose a referendum within the framework of the '78 regime to negotiate with Pedro Sánchez, that in the pact he made his position against independence very clear: “Meanwhile, the PSOE will defend broad development, through the appropriate legal mechanisms, of the 2006 Statute…” To make clear the abandonment of unilaterality, in a session of the Parliament in November, Junts and ERC knocked down the CUP's proposal to call a referendum.
The leaders of the majority Catalan parties missed a historic opportunity to achieve the 1-0, They continue to bury it and have long ago opted for autonomy instead of self-determination. On top of that they continue to trust in a chimera: the support of the imperialist bloc of the European Union, how hostile to self-determination due to panic, what gives it the liberation of the Catalan peoples, Scottish and Irish. The “successive approximations” lead to a dead end and not to independence.
The new government was born under the sign of the old politics and the old regime. We do not support the investitures of bourgeois presidents because they are at the service of plundering the workers and oppressing the people.. Among them there is no "Lesser evil" but continuous evil. It is embarrassing that each investiture enables the market of secret negotiations with agreements between parties that presented themselves with different programs and the population is the stone guest.. The currents that claim to be left and endorsed Puigdemont's investitures, Torra, Aragonés and/or Sánchez would do very well to reconsider these strategic decisions.
Equally, beyond the blows and maneuvers, there are many Catalans who they have not resigned and the crisis of the Spanish regime continues, which always offers weak flanks and surprises, with which the last word has not been said. So that there are fundamental changes, you have to turn around. It is necessary defeat the right and the extreme right in the streets, demanding full amnesty and self-determination, defending the use of Catalan languages, Basque and Galician, proposing the end of the monarchy and the '78 regime. An agenda of salary demands is needed, against the rising cost of living, the most immediate workers and popular needs and a general strike so that the capitalists pay for the crisis.
The situation presents great challenges, and also a great opportunity for the consistent left to appear as a strong option against the right and the false reformist options. We need to establish a new leadership, to turn everything around from class independence. In this regard, The CUP and Anticapitalists could play a leading role if they change their current orientation, which points more to reformism than to radical changes.. Those of us who claim to be revolutionary socialists like SOL, CRT, AT THE, CR and IR should promote these proposals together, without sectarianism or opportunism of any nature. In the meantime, We will continue to organize nationally and internationally in the International Socialist League (LIS) postulating socialism as the only possible solution to the barbarism to which imperialist capitalism leads.
