Together for Catalonia has taken a significant risk by rejecting the proposal. star Vice President Yolanda Díaz's proposal to reduce the working week to 37.5 hours per week. Risks are necessary in times of weakness or uncertainty, and it's clear that Puigdemont's party is under a pressing need to gain visibility and establish its own profile. It has undoubtedly achieved this; what remains to be seen is whether the risk will have been worth it. It's worth remembering that, according to the latest CEO survey, 70% of Junts voters were in favor of reducing working hours, at a time when the prevailing perception is that, while the Spanish economy is doing reasonably well, this boom is not extending its effects to the majority of the population.
It's also worth remembering that Junts, with its vote, inflicted a resounding defeat on the Spanish government at a time of Pedro Sánchez's greatest weakness. It did so by voting alongside the PP and Vox, which in Catalonia always comes at a reputational cost, at least within the independence movement.
Junts has certainly taken this reflection into account, but it has been more strongly influenced by the need to regain the support of small and medium-sized businesses, which for decades had been loyal to CiU, and also by Puigdemont's eagerness to assume the role of defender of employer interests, which the PSC has played since the Trial (positioning itself clearly on the right). All of this, combined with the conservative shift of the Catalan electorate—and, more specifically, the emergence of the far-right pro-independence movement—largely explains Junts' behavior. It seems that 2017 is a long way off, and that a cross-party pro-independence movement is no longer enough: all parties—together, too—need to establish themselves in a certain ideological niche as a base camp.
However, there are tactical reasons for this negative vote. The PSOE's indifference in the debate demonstrates that Junts' support (or lack thereof) for the 2026 budget is already on the table. The PSOE has largely avoided closing ranks with a vice president who carries lead in her wings, and in the discreet intervention of its parliamentary spokesperson, all the criticism was directed at the PP and Vox. It was Yolanda Díaz and Gabriel Rufián themselves who attacked Junts, while Míriam Nogueras spoke of not confusing big business owners with hairdressers and self-employed workers, and painted a picture of a Catalonia of craftsmen, of sheds and gardens, as untimely as the "class struggle" the vice president evoked in the vice president.
We mustn't forget, speaking of Junts' political agenda, that the Catalan brand of Sumar, the Comuns (Commons), will also feel the blow, and are Salvador Illa's main supporter. Junts has seen an opportunity to nurture a political enemy toward whom it has held a deep resentment since Ada Colau (along with the PP) gifted the Barcelona mayoralty to the Socialists while the winning candidate, Xavier Trias, exclaimed his famous "bomb you all."
All of this, however, affects the political parties. The concrete result is that the reduction of the working day will have to wait, although in the most prosperous countries in Europe it is beginning to become a reality without any law. We should be concerned about the satisfaction of Foment del Treball for having managed to defeat a measure that, properly negotiated, graduated, and complemented, would have produced an objective benefit for thousands of workers, potentially encouraging the business community to move forward on the path to resource optimization and productivity.
