Carles Puigdemont considers the investiture agreement broken. They are no longer part of the parliamentary majority, although they certainly never have been. Now Junts has gone over to the opposition with weapons and baggage. And with Junts in the opposition there is no possible parliamentary majority. The Catalan independentists have made the Government sweat. Each initiative was negotiated individually because the collective agreement was simply an illusion.
However, the approval of the amnesty that reduced soufflé in Catalonia and the victory of Illa left Junts without a specific role and in the grip of the new enemy: Aliança Catalana.
The Junts summit in Perpignan has definitively slammed the door on an investiture agreement that leaves the legislature bogged down. The leader, Carles Puigdemont, kicks the PSOE to hide his own problems. His appearance before the press to verbalize the agreement, taken unanimously, as Junts insisted insistently, and the call for a consultation this week – after a National Council tomorrow – for the less than 6,500 members to ratify the rupture is, in itself, a sign of weakness. A rupture that takes shape at the end of the meetings in Switzerland with an international mediator as the only new element.
Junts cannot find its place. That of advance payment as a show of strength before the PSOE, and ERC, has been diluted and the major agreements have not been fulfilled. Or because of the opposition of the judges –amnesty–, because of the opposition of Europe –the official status of Catalan– or because of the opposition of Podemos –immigration.
The strength of Aliança Catalana in the polls has caused a tsunami among the mayors of Junts and Puigdemont has wanted to settle the situation by putting himself at the forefront of a new strategy that seeks to blame everything on the PSOE and the PSC in Catalonia, “tacticist parties” to whom he reminded that Junts does not have the mayor’s office of Barcelona. Puigdemont came out at the press conference with the secessionist t-shirt, the first point to build the wall against Aliança Catalana, demanding the referendum and the declaration of independence, pointing out the dependence of Catalonia on Spain as the “source of poverty” and Spain’s intimidation of Catalonia that ranges from the judicial to the media. And he pointed out that Junts will not sustain a legislature without certain successes as “others do”, in clear reference to ERC. His passage undoubtedly brings the call for general elections closer to before the summer of next year, and this is largely seen in Madrid.
“There is not enough trust and political distrust is mutual,” said Puigdemont, who accused the PSOE of “not executing political agreements in a timely manner.” At this point, the Junts leader attacked Salvador Illa, whom he accused of allying with PP and Vox to Spanishize Catalonia with the “anesthesia strategy.” After drawing a chaotic panorama on public services, housing or financing, the president of Junts emphasized his capacity for patience.
“The PSOE is the most responsible.” The Junts leader targeted the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez. While waiting for the militancy to take action on the matter, the party will opt for blocking all the votes it proposes in the Congress of Deputies.
«We have confirmed that there is not enough trust and, in fact, the mutual distrust is the same. Maybe there is personal trust, but not at a political level,” said Puigdemont, who recalled verbatim that the Junts project is not aimed at Spanish stability. “We are not willing to support any Government that does not support Catalonia,” was his blunt conclusion.
The former Catalan president recalled that a year ago he sent a serious warning to the socialists, when his party asked Pedro Sánchez to submit to a motion of confidence. Although they finally withdrew the proposal in the Chamber after the mediation of Fernando Galindo.
Thus, a total breakup due to total distrust, but little else. The instrumental motion of censure, proposed by the new strong man of the party, Antoni Castellà, is left to rest. Puigdemont knows that voting on a motion with Feijóo at the helm could be a new shot in the foot because the Juntero voters have a preference for Sánchez. They won’t, but time by time. Junts hopes that Sánchez, cornered, will call elections, but this option is not contemplated in Moncloa. There is no alternative to the Government, but the Government is not going to fall “motu proprio” if a motion is not presented. Now Junts says it is not considering it. At the moment, the legislature is hanging by a thread, but Junts does not dare, for now, to cut it with a motion.