The PSOE and Junts are already working to try to resolve the situation created after the muted slamming of the door that was raised this Friday. The president of Junts per Catalunya has stated that as of today he is suspending “sectoral negotiations” with the PSOE. It is not goodbye, but it is a see you later, because according to the former Catalan president, the two parties have nothing more to talk about until a meeting is held, in order to assess what degree of compliance has been achieved in the agreement between Junts and PSOE that led to Sánchez’s investiture in November 2023. And that is precisely what is already being forged to find a way out. It will not be immediate, during this weekend, in which the PSOE organization secretary is concentrated in several regional congresses, but negotiation sources do indicate that it could be closed for this next week.
The appointment was already due, because one has been held every month since the investiture agreement, Cerdán will presumably meet with Puigdemont, Jordi Turull and Miriam Nogueras in Geneva with the presence of the agreed international mediator, the usual format. Next week Sánchez will also be in Switzerland, for the Davos summit, but he is not expected to participate in this meeting. The meeting between the leaders is on the table, not in Switzerland but in Brussels, but at the moment it does not seem imminent because the political situation does not favor it, since it should come at a time of closing agreements, especially Budgets.
“It is worth understanding the gravity and seriousness of the situation,” he said. The Government has avoided going to the clash and sources from the Executive are trying to reduce the situation, they believe that in the end the appearance shows that more negotiation is needed – that is why an appointment in Switzerland is requested – and the channels are still open, so we will have to insist although they are aware that the Budgets are moving away and it is becoming more and more difficult to achieve the support of Junts for the upcoming reforms.
this Thursday at the Congress Table, of the processing of the question of confidence against Sánchez. “The decision has been not to make any decision,” he criticized, while insisting on “the need to rebuild trust” between the two parties.
Beyond highlighting that an agreement to approve the Budget is unviable, Puigdemont did not want to go into details about which folders the “sectoral negotiations” affect, although he has said that they are fundamental issues for the stability of the legislature: “If the PSOE proposes to talk about Budgets tomorrow, we will say no. If you propose that we validate a decree of law approved by the Council of Ministers, we will say no,” he replied to a question about what issues the suspension of negotiations will stop.
From the other side, the Government has chosen to avoid a direct clash with Puigdemont and keep the bridges and doors open to negotiation. The Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, has tried to reduce the tension reflected by the Junts leader and has invited all groups to continue negotiating. “We have a plural Congress, which is what the Spanish people voted for, and the hallmark of the Government is dialogue,” explained the minister. “We dialogue with everyone, and we fulfill our agreements,” he insisted as a message to Puigdemont, who accuses them of not complying. “In the case of Junts, some of these agreements are already in the BOE, others are being processed and others are being negotiated. The Government complies with the agreements it signs. And when there are discrepancies, which there are, we resolve them with dialogue and effort to find agreements,” concluded the minister, who has invited all the groups that usually support the Executive, including Junts, to continue working on more agreement to take advantage of the good moment for the Spanish economy with almost 22 million social security affiliates and growth well above the European average.
Different government sources consulted indicate that Puigdemont’s appearance is more or less as planned, with the same harsh tone that he has had since December, but with the bridges still unbroken and with the possibility of seeking specific agreements as long as they can be closed. the pending files, especially that of the transfer of immigration powers to the Generalitat, which has been bogged down for weeks although in both sectors they assure that only the final details remain. In the background of everything, as the Government interprets, is the fact that this matter will not be resolved until the Constitutional Court rules on the appeal that the Junts leader will present. The possibility of a meeting between Pedro Sánchez and the former president It is also on the table, although it is likely that it will not come to fruition if the negotiating channel is not also reopened for the Budgets, even though it now seems very difficult.
“We want them to know that we are at an end point,” the former Catalan president stressed when asked about . He former president He has denied that a meeting with Sánchez is on his request sheet. To resolve the situation, this face-to-face meeting is not necessary, he assured, despite the fact that the president has shown himself in favor of this meeting in Brussels.
Junts sources emphasize that the extraordinary meeting in Switzerland, for which there is still no date, is not going with “any menu” or list of specific demands, but that the current crisis is the only point of the day in a moment of rupture that It requires clarifying in which direction you want to go. The idea is for the mediator to say how he sees the situation and “what he proposes” in the face of what Junts does not hesitate to describe as a serious crisis. Only from that moment would a decision be made as to what the next step would be. Of course, the sources point out, it is essential that the PSOE returns to the spirit of the Brussels agreement that it “has dynamited”, both due to “non-compliance” with its points and due to an “incompatible narrative” in Catalonia, where the socialist Government of Salvador Illa It ensures a return to normality that the independentists consider clashes with the reality recognized in the agreement reached in 2023 in Brussels.
Puigdemont has recognized that tightening the rope now with the PSOE is a “risky bet”, with an “obvious” political cost, as well as a personal one at a time when both he and his former counselor and elected MEP Toni Comín, remain in Brussels because they have not yet been able to benefit from the amnesty law that was part of the Brussels agreements. But he has stressed that his personal situation “has never conditioned” the political agenda and that it will not do so now either.
He former president has summoned , spokesperson for the party in Congress, and Jordi Turull, general secretary of JxCat, to Brussels. Also to other senior officials of the training and people he trusts, in the case of Josep Rius, Toni Castellà, Toni Comín, Mònica Sales, Eduard Pujol, Albert Batet and . “Thank you for traveling kilometers and coming into exile,” Puigdemont said at the beginning of his speech. This occurs after the decision made by the Congress Board, this Thursday, to postpone its resolution on whether or not to process a question of confidence that tests the support of Pedro Sánchez in the Congress of Deputies. The freezing of the ruling, for the second time, was understood as a kick forward from the Table, controlled by the PSOE and Sumar, to give the Government an extra margin of time in order to try to redirect the stormy relationship with Junts.
The break with the independence party has been planned for days, due to the insistence of the socialists that they would not admit the proposal of Puigdemont’s party to the Table for processing. own former president of the Generalitat has insisted in recent weeks in stating that the blocking of the processing, alluding to the fact that it would imply a total cut of the line that connects Junts with the Government. The relationship between the two parties has never been optimal, but Junts maintains that blocking, outright, the processing of the trust issue marks a point of no return and would mean that the Government would no longer be able to count on the seven Junts votes in Congress. At an event in Barcelona on Tuesday, Jordi Turull, general secretary of JxCat, warned of consequences “that the PSOE will not like.”
Puigdemont held a meeting this Friday in Brussels with the leadership of his party to communicate what strategy the party has to adopt from now on.
