Antoni Bassas's analysis: 'Everything is being prepared for Puigdemont's return'

Corruption continues to threaten Pedro Sánchez's government. The Civil Guard has produced a report in which Santos Cerdán, former organizational secretary of the PSOE, appears as the link between the Spanish government (specifically Minister Ábalos, who was Minister of Transport) and the construction company Acciona.

Specifically, Acciona allegedly paid Servinabar 2% of its construction contracts. And Servinabar, in turn, received 75% of its revenue from Acciona. The report states that Cerdán paid for an apartment with money from the kickback scheme. What did Pedro Sánchez know, and what responsibility did he bear if he didn't? Remember that Cerdán is already in prison, Ábalos is under investigation, and both were organizational secretaries of the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party).

This morning Sánchez had to answer Feijóo's question in Congress about this corruption case. Since Rajoy fell in a vote of no confidence due to corruption, Feijóo didn't remind Sánchez that when that vote of no confidence took place, which gave him the presidency of the government, Sánchez presented himself as a reformer. Today Feijóo wanted to taste the bitterness of revenge:The spindle is Ferraz and you've taken it to MoncloaHis motion of no confidence wasn't against corruption, it was for the corruption of his cronies. Do what you want with your party, Mr. Sánchez, but you won't turn Spain into a spindle.

But Sánchez hasn't responded to Feijóo. In fact, Sánchez hasn't responded to anything for quite some time now; nobody responds to anything here anymore. His only response has been to talk about Mazón and the privatization of services in the regions governed by the PP.

Then Miriam Nogueras, from Junts, asked a question, describing the additional 0.1% deficit that the State will allow the autonomous communities as mere crumbs. Sánchez seized the opportunity to boast about the amnesty and the third point of the report in favor of amnesty, which the EU Advocate General reported on last week: "And the third point, which comes in a context—and I quote—of genuine reconciliation within Catalan society. This is what the government is doing for Catalonia, for Spain, and for Spain."

We're stuck on party talking points, regardless of whether the words match the facts. True reconciliation would consist of agreeing to an independence referendum.

While this was happening in Madrid, the Catalan Parliament was also holding a government question time session. The first question to be posed to President Illa was by Junts MP Mònica Sales, who, at the suggestion of Carles Puigdemont, became the... new president of the Junts parliamentary groupThe outgoing president, Albert Batet, will now become Puigdemont's right-hand man on matters of strategy and the electoral campaign. This morning, a Junts leader told us that these changes in the parliamentary group are a response to the expectation of Puigdemont's return, which they see as more likely precisely because of these pronouncements from the European Union. However, he added: Puigdemont's imminent return would not necessarily mean that Junts would vote for Pedro Sánchez's budget.

Good morning.