Direct and with a binary answer: this will be the question to the Junts members about the split with the PSOE.
Feijóo considers Junts' position to be "a bit vague" and says that Sánchez does not have the majority to remain in La Moncloa.
Barcelona"Do you agree with the national leadership's proposal to terminate the investiture agreement with the PSOE due to its repeated failure to meet its commitments?" This is the question that Junts members will have to answer, with a "yes" or a "no", to validate the agreement. the break with the socialists that the party leadership agreed to yesterdayThis was explained by the secretary general of Junts, Jordi Turull, in an interview this morning on RAC1. The question must be approved by the party's national council, which will meet tonight. Once it has been approved, the party's members will have to decide between Wednesday and Thursday on the position of the Junta leadership. The PP leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has stated that the position is "a bit vague" and said that he "would like" Puigdemont's party to clarify it.
For the PP, the Junts movement demonstrates that "more and more partners" of the Spanish government "are more uncomfortable" with the executive, according to Feijóo in a media interview. The conservative, although he has not commented on a possible motion of censure—which Turull has ruled out supporting—stressed that "without a budget, without a legislative capacity, and without a parliamentary majority," the president of the Spanish government, Pedro Sánchez, "cannot continue" at the helm of La Moncloa. In fact, he stated that, under these conditions, no president "would continue in any country in the world." For her part, Isabel Díaz Ayuso asserted that if Puigdemont does not force elections, "what he wants is to maintain chaos" because, as an independence supporter, "he is more interested in chaos than in the governability of Spain."
From Catalonia, the Popular Party (PP) has challenged Junts to engage in "real politics" and vote in favor of their proposals in the Catalan Parliament "to lower taxes in Catalonia," said the conservative spokesperson in the Catalan Parliament, Juan Fernández. The Commons criticized Junts' split with the PSOE: "There are those who confuse country and party," said David Cid, the party's spokesperson in the Parliament, who asserted that Junts is "building the image that the majority in Congress is unviable," which he believes "brings us ever closer to a PP and Vox majority." As did Jessica Albiach's party, CUP MP Laure Vega criticized Junts for opposing in Congress "all those measures that have to do with expanding workers' rights," and asserted that Junts' move on Monday makes "no difference" to the usual "fish-in-the-bucket" policy.
The Puigdemont-Sánchez meeting
One of the issues that has remained pending throughout these almost two years of the pact between the PSOE and Junts is the meeting between Carles Puigdemont and Pedro Sánchez. In fact, it was one of the demands of the regional government members that the Socialists have not publicly ruled out, but they have not set a date for either. This Tuesday, Turull stated that he no longer considers it necessary because the meeting "does not resolve" the situation.
At the beginning of September, Salvador Illa did travel to Brussels to meet with Carles Puigdemont, a meeting that was interpreted as a "political amnesty" for the former president of the Generalitat (Catalan government) and that raised the question of whether it was a prelude to a meeting with Pedro.
The negotiations in Switzerland
The split decided this Monday by the leadership means that Junts has abandoned the talks in Switzerland, where they held meetings with the PSOE with the participation of an international mediator. In an interview on Catalunya Ràdio, Junts spokesperson in Congress, Míriam Nogueras, stated that the mere existence of this mediation space is "historic" because it recognized the conflict with the desire to "reach an agreement between the Catalan nation and the Spanish nation." However, after 19 meetings, Nogueras asserted that "it has surely served to demonstrate that there is no way to resolve this conflict with any Spanish party."
The relationship in Congress
The rift between the PSOE and Junts will also result in their opposition to approving any Spanish government proposal in Congress, which means that Sánchez will have an even more difficult time approving the state budget. There will be an exception for specific measures if they improve Catalonia: "If it goes well for Catalonia, let's talk; if not, goodbye," Puigdemont said yesterday from Perpignan. In this regard, Nogueras said that the Socialists will find out Junts' voting intentions in Congress itself: "What we are not going to do is continue wasting time negotiating with the PSOE to close agreements that will then end up not being fulfilled," he noted.
Junts' last-minute move, therefore, fundamentally changes two things. What is evident is the abandonment of the mediation space in Switzerland. And in Congress, the PSOE now knows in advance that it will face a "no" from Junts to any proposal. However, in practice, this latest change isn't entirely groundbreaking, as in recent months the Junts party members had already opposed several of the Spanish government's proposals, aligning themselves with the PP and Vox.
The question remains as to whether the rise of the far-right Catalan Alliance, predicted by some polls, had anything to do with Junts' decision. Turull asserted that this was "not at all" the case. Later, in an interview on TV3, Turull himself insisted that Junts' political project is "very different" from that of the Catalan Alliance, and that his party is "focused on solutions, not shouting."
