Puigdemont and the Junts leadership are activating the Sánchez countdown.

BarcelonaThe Spanish government's failure to comply with the agreements with Junts and how to kick off the Catalan and Spanish political cycle were supposed to be the key points of the Junts leadership meeting this Wednesday, which had been planned for days. But the fact is that Tuesday's meeting between the President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, and the former President and leader of the regional government, Carles Puigdemont, has made him take on a new dimension. The content of the conversation with Isla has been the focus of the permanent and executive meetings—Junts leadership meetings—of the party, held in Waterloo. According to sources consulted, Puigdemont, with the endorsement of the executive, agreed to activate the countdown to decide Pedro Sánchez's future, meaning that this fall the judiciary will make a decision on the Spanish legislature.

In both meetings, and according to some sources consulted, the Junts leader explained that during Tuesday's meeting with Salvador Illa, he told him that the situation of the Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez, "is critical" and that they are "very disappointed by the PSOE's failures to comply." Puigdemont spoke before the leadership to explain how the meeting with Isla was planned: first, that the meeting was at the request of the current president, that Puigdemont set the condition that it be "in person and not online," and that a day was chosen when Isla would have to travel to Belgium. In this case, it coincided with the presentation in the European Parliament on the millennium of Montserrat. The warning about whether Junts "continues to support Sánchez" is what Puigdemont was referring to when He told the Catalan Summer University that Things would happen in the fall. During the conversation, Isla at no point asked Puigdemont to approve the Spanish financial statements, according to the sources consulted. The issue of the budget was not addressed. A leader of the regional government concludes that the meeting with Isla was "a first approximation" to pave the way for Sánchez's interests.

It was a friendly conversation, but with caveats about the progress of the legislature in the State. Puigdemont's assessment of the meeting is "positive," according to the sources, because "it allowed Junts to visualize itself as an alternative" to Isla's executive. The executive meeting did not address specific issues of non-compliance, nor did it discuss the transfer of powers over immigration or this issue in general, nor did it discuss the fiscal balances or other folders Not just the official status of Catalan, but the Brussels agreement as a whole. Rather, it has been a warning, also internal, that we must consider what to do with Sánchez starting in October. The Spanish president has the budget on his mind, and Junts will address this issue in the next special executive session, a matter the former president has called for in-depth consideration.

Criticism of the Government

Beyond the details, the political conclusion of the Junts leadership has been the same as in recent months: they attribute to Isla a "process of denationalization" of Catalonia and have criticized her government's actions and lack of "defense of the interests of the Catalans." These weaknesses contribute to the "impoverishment of the country," according to the account the Junts members expressed in a statement after the meetings. Junts aims to establish itself as an "alternative" in Isla and it is here that they are working for this term, after the independence movement lost the Catalan executive in the last elections to the Parliament.

The Spanish government holds the meeting

Reactions to the meeting continued this Wednesday, both in the Principality and throughout Spain. The Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, stated that Isla's meeting with Puigdemont "is a further step towards political and institutional normalization," contradicting the former president, who spoke of "democratic abnormality." "It's a picture of a reunion," added the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares. The president of the Catalan People's Party (PP), Alejandro Fernández, reacted very differently, warning in an interview on esRadio that "the devil is trying to convince us that he doesn't exist or that he has calmed down" and that he "is rearming for a new coup." For its part, the CUP (Cup of Unity) considers the meeting between Isla and Puigdemont "void of political content" and believes it is a "direct order" from Sánchez to Isla, whom he calls "a butler of the Spanish state."

The president of Castilla-La Mancha, Emiliano García-Page, has been highly critical, harshly criticizing the meeting. In a press conference, he described it as "cryptic," full of "opaqueness," and generating "many questions" and "no answers." He therefore called on Isla to demonstrate that "he is the one in charge" and not Puigdemont with "the remote control," as he believes is the case in the Spanish government.