Puigdemont warns those who give Junts per mort: "What a blast. We will continue"

BarcelonaThis Sunday, July 27, marked exactly one year since Junts held a show of force in Banys i Palaldà (Northern Catalonia), just days before Salvador Illa's inauguration. At the event, former president Carles Puigdemont pledged to to go to Parliament "peti quien pete" to be present at the plenary session. Just ten days later, he set foot in the Principality, but briefly: he escaped among hundreds of Mossos d'Esquadra officers and protesters surrounding Parliament, and returned to Waterloo. A year later, Puigdemont was again this Sunday in Catalunya Nord, this time in Prats de Molló, to celebrate the five years since his founding as a party. In a different context—Isla has been in government for a year now and they are in the opposition—but with the same problem: the former president of the Generalitat is still waiting to return, now with his eye on the autumn for the Constitutional Court to rule in his favor and for the amnesty to become effective.

Junts are aware that their pact to make Pedro Sánchez president has not yet borne the fruit they hoped for. The amnesty law has been approved in Congress, yes, but the Supreme Court has not applied it to either Puigdemont or the pro-independence leaders; The official status of Catalan in the European Union is stalled, and immigration powers for the Generalitat are being blocked by Podemos in the Spanish chamber. Therefore, the former president wanted to send a double message to the 1,500 people who gathered in Prats de Molló to hear him: a message coded as internal vindication; and another of warning in Madrid. "We are proud of what we have done and the way we are doing it; to all those who have buried us six times and who will bury us a seventh time tomorrow, we must tell them to bomb them, we will continue, we will do our thing, the Catalan way," he declared. And he warned Pedro Sánchez: "Junts' vote cannot be taken for granted."

What Puigdemont said this Sunday, then, is that the tone will continue to be that of the last plenary session in Congress, where Junts defeated at the last minute along with Podemos, PP, and Vox. the Spanish government's anti-blackout decree. If it doesn't serve the "interests of Catalonia," Puigdemont said, they won't be active in the plurinational majority. And how will they decide their vote? He put forward what he considers to be his "method," not only in the Congress of Deputies, but also in the Parliament and Barcelona City Council: "To decide the vote, we first ask ourselves if it is positive for Catalonia; if it respects our powers and identity; if our essential proposals have been accepted, and if it is useful on the path toward effective independence."

For his part, the secretary general of Junts, Jordi Turull, has followed the same line and has also defended himself against "misunderstood pragmatism": "Catalonia needs Junts per Catalunya to save the nation and become its own state," he asserted, and hinted that they will have to make decisions "unlike" Spain: "We will have to do so if we want to guarantee national progress." "We are the pro-independence force that does not allow itself to be fooled by the siren calls of Madrid and that always chooses Catalonia, neither one nor the other," he concluded.

The "architects of chaos"

Puigdemont, aside from his message in Madrid and internally, has also sought to differentiate himself from his political rivals. From Esquerra (Republican Left), with whom he competes to extract the most benefits from the Spanish government, to the far-right Catalan Alliance, which is snagging a portion of his electorate. But he also clashed with the leftist PSOE, especially Podemos, with whom he recently clashed over their stance on the transfer of immigration powers to the Generalitat (Catalan Government) following the coup. from an interview with Ione Belarra in the ARA.

Taking a swipe at Oriol Junqueras's party, Puigdemont criticized the fact that they "make deals out of hand" in their pacts with the PSOE, while he also criticized the Catalan Alliance and the left wing of the PSOE for proposing "populist" solutions. For example, he distanced himself from those who, in the face of immigration, defend "mass deportations," or who, in order to solve housing problems, defend "getting rid of landlords," and who, in the face of mass tourism, display banners with the slogan "tourism go home"In the face of the architects of chaos, we are the pawns of hope," he reaffirmed.