Armengol Wins Speaker's Position In First Sign Of PSOE-Junts Cooperation

Former Regional President of the Balearic Islands Francina Armengol has been elected as the next President of the Congress of Deputies (speaker) in the first concrete sign of cooperation between the leftist bloc of parties led by acting PM Pedro Sanchez and the hard-line Catalan separatist Together for Catalonia (Junts). Armengol won in the first round with 178 votes, above the 176 required for an absolute majority. She beat the centre-right Popular Party (PP) candidate Cuca Gamarra on 139 votes, and right-wing nationalist Vox nominee Ignacio Gil Lázaro with 33.

• Armengol, a Catalan speaker from Sanchez's centre-left Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) has a history of working with Catalan nationalist parties in her time leading the Balearics, and was therefore seen as an acceptable candidate by Junts.
• As we noted previously, while the cooperation between the PSOE and Junts could open the path to the latter supporting Sanchez in an investiture vote, there is still a long way to go given the commitments Junts are demanding regarding a legally recognised referendum on Catalan self-determination.