Antoni Bassas' analysis: 'The mediator demands the PSOE and creates a landing strip for Junts'

Today we have a two-ring circus. On ring number 1, the Catalan and Spanish governments are reaching around twenty important agreements today and during this week, including the authorization for Expand the Mossos staff up to 25,000 agents by 2030, an increase in the number of judges, a consortium to monitor compliance with the State's investments in Catalonia, and it is likely that an agreement will be reached for the State to forgive the Generalitat's debt of 15 billion euros from the liquidity fund it financed during the Mas and Mas-Colell era, and the Generalitat's bank will become the Spanish State.

And on the other track, the famous vote of confidence. It turns out that tomorrow Congress should vote on whether Sánchez submits to a vote of confidence, as Junts demanded if he wanted to continue the legislature, after verifying that he was not moving forward in the transfer of immigration powers. On Friday, the PSOE and Junts met in Switzerland. And something unusual came out: the international mediator, Francisco Galindo, who never says anything in public, issued a statement for the first time since the talks began (they have had a dozen meetings) asking Junts to withdraw the request for a vote of confidence so as not to break relations, but, attention, he stressed that there were breaches of the agreements. Rodríguez Zapatero, who was at the meeting in Switzerland, also admitted, with diplomatic manners, that the PSOE had not done its homework with Junts.

Zapatero: "I hope that Junts will heed this request, this request from the ambassador. He is doing a very admirable job. The PSOE knows and wants to avoid ruptures and we know that when trust deteriorates it must be recovered with effort. And I have no doubt that the PSOE is doing just that."

In short, Turull called the Junts executive committee for this morning with a message in which he said: "They have asked us to withdraw the question of confidence to avoid a break-up and give time to materialize very advanced issues. The issue is sufficiently important and deserves a rigorous debate. Tomorrow we will decide among all."

Asking Junts to withdraw the question, did the mediator exceed his functions or has he paved the way for Junts to do so, in exchange for the delegation of competence in immigration? After what I have heard from both sides this morning, I am left with the idea that the mediator, by asking Junts to withdraw the issue, is urging the PSOE to comply with the agreements and that, therefore, only in this way would Junts withdraw the issue, because, in fact, the mediator is asking for a final effort. It will not be easy because there are hours left until tomorrow's session in Congress, and Junts say that "we cannot continue like this" and that the PSOE "is scraping the bottom of the pot."

Good morning.