Juntos' strategy to link Salvador Illa and Pedro Sánchez

Waterloo (Belgium)Together maintains the threat to Pedro Sánchez and includes Salvador Illa in the equation. The party led by Carles Puigdemont now links the Catalan and Spanish legislatures and seeks to force Salvador Illa to ratify the Brussels agreement, which they reached. the junteros directly with the PSOEIf the president of the Generalitat opposes it, the spokesperson for the Junts group in the Parliament, Mònica Sales, warned in a press conference from Waterloo that "there will be no further path" in the relationship between the regional government and the Socialists, both in Madrid and Barcelona.

The party always accuses Isla of depending on Madrid and not looking out for the interests of Catalonia, but Sales stated this Monday that there is a "double standard" and that the Spanish president's and the Generalitat's views do not coincide. "This is not compatible with the Brussels agreement, neither in spirit nor in letter," she asserted. According to Sales, the PSC (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) has voted in the Parliament more than 80 times alongside the PP and Vox "against the interests of Catalonia," although she did not give any specific examples.

The intention is to link Isla to the pacts reached between Junts and the PSOE in the general policy debate in the Parliament on October 7, 8, and 9. The members of the junts will present up to 22 resolution proposals, each with three points, that will refer to the Brussels agreement, as well as other initiatives aligned with Junts' political program. Sales has not given details about which proposals they want Illa to approve will be conditional on support for Sánchez and has limited himself to explaining that, in general terms, they will raise issues regarding taxation, infrastructure, or language.

This is not the first time that Junts has threatened Sánchez. It is a constant among the junts and the basis of their negotiations with the Socialists. "Perhaps things will happen in the fall that have not happened until now; we have given enough time," Puigdemont warned in mid-August in a conference at the Catalan Summer UniversityAnd yesterday, at the Junts parliamentary group's working sessions in Waterloo, Sales reiterated: "Things will happen in the fall that haven't happened until now, and they will possibly begin to happen within the framework of this general policy debate in the Catalan Parliament," he insisted. Now, what things?

Salas, like Puigdemont, doesn't exactly clarify the threat, and when asked about a possible vote of no confidence against Sánchez, he avoided giving anything away. "We tend to always put the bandage before the wound," he replied. In the background are the pending agreements between the PSOE and Junts and the return of former president Carles Puigdemont.

The hottest thing is in the kitchen sink.

Puigdemont's plan was to collect "in advance" and not support Sánchez's investiture in exchange for promises to be made. However, Junts finds that much of the agreement reached two years ago in Brussels has not been fulfilled.

One of the stuck points is the official status of Catalan in the European Union. More than two years after the Spanish government brought the issue to the EU Council, the initiative continues to face opposition from a dozen member states and Pessimism about its approval is growing, both within the ranks of Junts and in the Moncloa. At this Tuesday's EU Council, which could once again be at the center of debate at the very start of the political year, the recognition of Catalonia's own language will not even be discussed. Sources from both sides now assume that it is more complicated than expected and, above all, blame the PP and the pressure on other European governments for derailing the proposal. On the other hand, the transfer of immigration powers is also stalled (Podemos vetoed the bill in the Congress of Deputies), as is the implementation of the amnesty, which has run into a wall in the Supreme Court and is pending a decision from the Constitutional Court on whether or not it should be applied to Puigdemont.

Thus, almost two years after sealing the Brussels agreement, Junts is still seeking guarantees that the PSOE will ultimately implement the commitments reached. And, one way to increase the pressure on the Moncloa Palace, they believe is to include the president of the Generalitat (Catalan government) in the discussions, despite having previously rejected him as an interlocutor. In fact, Junts had not directly linked him to their support for Madrid, although Isla's visit to Puigdemont in Brussels almost two weeks ago already confirmed that the future of the Spanish and Catalan legislatures cannot be understood without each other.