The decision has been made, in the absence of endorsement by the bases. Junts considers the Brussels agreement that allowed the inauguration of Pedro Sánchez broken and from now on it will clearly place itself in the opposition. The Executive, meeting in Perpinyà (France) for the occasion, has voted unanimously to end the relationship they had had with the PSOE since October 2023.
The step made official by Junts and which must now be endorsed by the bases, does not necessarily mean that they will let the Sánchez Government fall, but only the end of their parliamentary support. Although the relationship between the majority of the Government and Junts in Congress has been very stormy, the independentistas had sometimes voted against key proposals of the Executive, but they had also often been necessary partners to approve them. The sustainable mobility law, the last one to move forward, had the support of Junts.
“We respect the internal dynamics of all the parties. There is dialogue, an outstretched hand and negotiation, and it is worth it. We are going to insist on this. It is worth talking, negotiating and reaching agreements,” reacted the PSOE spokesperson, Montserrat Mínguez, who assured that the continuity of the Government is “the best for Catalonia and the best for Spain.”
Carles Puigdemont’s party has been falling in the polls for months, pressured above all by Aliança Catalana, which has led to a turn to the right with which it intends to underline its critical position on immigration and a strong hand in the face of insecurity. Something that was increasingly incompatible with the constant pacts with the coalition government chaired by Sánchez.
The determination made by the formation comes after two years in which communication with the PSOE has been constant but disagreements have also been very frequent. From the initial optimism for a pact that returned Puigdemont to the center of the political scene and gave a definitive push to the amnesty, the independentistas quickly moved to a situation of skepticism, which they understood to be constant delays by the Government at the negotiating table.
At Junts they were never satisfied with the Government’s role regarding the amnesty law. After some very tough negotiations in which the independentists were on the verge of jumping several times, the fact that the courts did not immediately apply it led Puigdemont to demand that the Government pull all its resources to achieve this, from the Prosecutor’s Office to the Council of the Judiciary. Without achieving this, Junts finally demanded a “political amnesty”, that is, that the Executive normalize the relationship with Junts and, even, that Sánchez go to see Puigdemont, something that never happened.
No less complicated was the negotiation on the delegation of powers in immigration, which was agreed upon but not before Puigdemont issued a harsh ultimatum to the PSOE and a request that Sánchez submit to a question of confidence. Finally, independentists and socialists ended up redirecting the relationship. But the delegation of powers came to nothing due to its rejection in Congress, after Podemos distanced itself from the proposals because it was considered racist.
In recent months the situation of blockade had worsened, as it became clear to the leadership of the independence party that the dialogue with the PSOE was sterile. They have not managed to get the amnesty to reach their top leader, nor have they made progress on issues related to immigration or multiple recidivism. For its part, the request for Catalan to be official in Europe, on which the Government and Junts have worked a lot, also dragged on, despite the last favorable step that occurred last week, when Germany accepted a dialogue with Spain on the issue.
But the differences were already insurmountable. Puigdemont believes that he can no longer get much out of his relationship with the PSOE and that a breakup now, while this bullet has some value, is preferable to waiting until later when the legislature could end for other reasons.
Source: www.eldiario.es
