Óscar Puente: "If I were Puigdemont, I would present myself in Spain"

Madrid / BarcelonaThe day after the endorsement of European justice for the amnesty everyone builds their own narrative. While the independence movement celebrates the ECJ's decision but warns that it does not end repression, both the Catalan and Spanish governments see their agenda of "reconciliation" validated and claim the end of the "political crisis" between Catalonia and the State. Furthermore, the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, has assured that if he "were Carles Puigdemont, he would now go to Spain, without a doubt". "We must stand up to it once and for all," he said in an interview with RNE, as reported by Efe. "If I cannot move freely in a country that has decided that I am free, let's all blush once, they say a minute of blushing is better than a lifetime of yellow. I would do it," he assured, since in his opinion it would be "tremendously complicated to understand that the Spanish justice system tries to fail to comply" and that it is argued that it is not applied immediately. In fact, Puente considers that the ECJ ruling shows that there is a part of the judiciary in Spain that does not respect the legitimacy of the legislative power, which questions its capacity to decide and which believes that it is above it.

Now, the independence movement warns that courts must apply the law. In an informative breakfast in Madrid, within the framework of the Nuevo Economía Fórum, the leader of Esquerra, Oriol Junqueras, has warned that the ECJ's ruling is a "political victory," but "incomplete": "The law is not measured only by its approval, but by its application," he said, and in this regard he asked "what is happening with Spanish democracy" considering that the courts are not making the norm effective.

Both the Catalan and Spanish governments are now urging Spanish courts to apply the ECJ ruling and make it possible for the amnesty to be applied to all its beneficiaries, especially to the "leaders of the Procés", as emphasized by the Minister of Justice, Félix Bolaños. The spokesperson for the Catalan executive, Sílvia Paneque, argued on Catalunya Ràdio that, "beyond the legal endorsement" of the law, the Luxembourg ruling "allows us to close, in a way, a political, social, and institutional crisis and open a period of normality". And Minister Félix Bolaños stressed on SER microphones that the European ruling approves the amnesty as a tool for "reconciliation for an entire generation of Catalans".

"Today, political normality is experienced in Catalonia, it was our goal and we have achieved it", stated Bolaños, who compared the current scenario with the "unbearable tension" that he claims was experienced in Catalonia and Spain during the years of the Procés.

The relationship between ERC and the Spanish government

In this context, Oriol Junqueras guaranteed this Friday from Madrid the stability of Pedro Sánchez's legislature until the end. However, he pointed out that the PSOE has not managed to resolve its cases of alleged corruption well enough and that now it is surprised that it may also be a victim of 'lawfare' with the cases surrounding the Spanish president's circle. "The PSOE also believed it was immune and it is not. One day others will also discover that they are not, and on that day our best ally will be us. It would not be the first time in history," he stated.

Given this context of judicial pressure and weakness of the Spanish government, the republicans' thesis is that the alternative of the PP and Vox is worse and that, if they came to power, a territorial conflict without precedent would open up. That is why their strategy in Madrid involves taking advantage of the remainder of the mandate until the elections to approve "essential" matters. That is, to squeeze the PSOE until the end: they have pending the write-off of the regional financing debt, which must pass a first stage next week in Congress, and then the financing model. At this point, it is planned to be approved in the Council of Fiscal and Financial Policy on July 29 and subsequently must go to the Council of Ministers and Congress, where Junts' vote is key. The republicans believe they will be able to convince Carles Puigdemont's party.