Gabriel Rufián raises his voice against Junts: "Stop harming my country"

MadridThe battle between Junts and Esquerra has taken center stage in the appearance this Wednesday from Spanish President Pedro Sánchez. Republican spokesperson Gabriel Rufián, who dedicated a good part of his speech to attacking the People's Party (PP), also raised his voice against Carles Puigdemont's party in the final minutes of his address. After delivering his entire speech in Spanish, he switched to Catalan to demand a "public apology" from Junts, after "six years"—he said—of them claiming that Esquerra supported Sánchez "in exchange for nothing." "We've given our all while you were tweeting," he declared. "Stop harming my country," he concluded.

For Rufián, it's a mistake to stop supporting the Spanish government and block the fifty or so laws that Junts announced last week, arguing that Sánchez isn't fulfilling his promises. "That argument doesn't fly anymore; only the two digital media outlets they subsidize buy into their narrative," he said, since, according to Rufián, the laws that will be vetoed (like the family law or universal healthcare) also affect Catalans. "Catalonia isn't their homeland, it's their business, and they're losing it," the Republican added, also reaffirming his opinion that sooner or later Alberto Núñez Feijóo will reach La Moncloa with Junts' support. "What a disgrace: from Puigdemont to prison, Puigdemont votes for the motion."

Junts spokesperson Míriam Nogueras responded briefly to Rufián, whom she referred to as "the PSOE spokesperson." "I thought the turn of the PSOE spokesperson who doesn't talk about Catalonia was the last [turn], I didn't remember it was the turn before [ours]," Nogueras said at the very start of her speech, just minutes after Rufián finished his. "If Pedro Sánchez is president, it's thanks to Junts. Thanks to Junts, Alberto Núñez Feijóo isn't president [...]. Enough with the lectures," she concluded.