The PSOE tries to reduce the clash with ERC for the Catalan on Netflix
The PSOE tries to reduce the clash with ERC at the expense of the General Law of Audiovisual Communication that does not satisfy the demands of the Catalan republicans in the terms in which this Tuesday left the Council of Ministers. Moncloa had agreed with ERC that this rule would include a mandatory quota in co-official languages in the production of digital platforms. However, the Government admitted on Tuesday that you can't bind companies like Netflix, HBO, or Amazon Video because they are not based in Spain. The Republican spokesman, Gabriel Rufián, shouted to the sky and even threatened to withdraw its support for the budgets.
The three words that dynamited the agreement between the Government and ERC for the Catalan share on Netflix
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The Government tries to redirect the situation. Late on Tuesday, Executive sources assured that they would negotiate with the rest of the parties in the parliamentary process trying to find a fit to the ERC's demands, although the Ministry of Economy maintains that it is impossible to force platforms that are not based in Spain to be produced in Catalan, Basque or Galician since they are limited by the European directive that regulates audiovisual content.
"Every negotiation has a limit, which is what the community directive tells us. Within this framework, we are going to have the best possible law that promotes Spanish and the co-official languages," said the first vice president, Nadia Calviño, in a interview on Onda Cero.
Rufián will meet this afternoon with the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, and the Socialist spokesman, Héctor Gómez, to address the matter. However, the Socialists assure that ERC already knew the the fine print of the audiovisual law, that is to say, that it left out international platforms. Republicans insist that the agreement included that the 6% quota in co-official languages affected Netflix, HBO and other platforms, even if they are not based in Spain. Moncloa initially confirmed that those were the terms of the agreement. Socialist sources attribute ERC's anger to the headlines that came out this Tuesday after the approval of the audiovisual law and to the uproar it caused in Catalonia, given that Junts had pressed.
In any case, the leadership of the PSOE is convinced that there will be an understanding. “We have a good agreement with ERC for some budgets. We are going to continue talking and I believe that there will be no major problems. They know that we comply with our agreements and this time it will also be the case, ”said the Deputy Secretary General, Adriana Lastra, in statements to journalists in Congress.
The ERC is not the only front that has been opened to the socialist wing of the Government. The minority partner has also complained that the text of the audiovisual law has not been negotiated internally. "As he has not wanted to negotiate with us, we will have to see in the amendment phase if this goes ahead," the president of the confederal group, Jaume Asens, has warned.
However, the deputy of United We Can has been convinced that public accounts are not at risk in the Senate after the threat of ERC. "I think it is part of the staging prior to the approval of some budgets, but we do not know who is right, we have not been part of that negotiation, we have not been informed of the content of that negotiation," he added on TVE, reports Laura Galaup.
