When did the trust between the PSOE and Junts break?

Madrid / Barcelona"We will not invest in Pedro Sánchez because we have been burned by it". That is how the general secretary of Junts, Jordi Turull, responded this week to journalist Ariadna Oltra on Els matins when she asked him what his party would do if they were decisive again in the Congress of Deputies. What has happened in these three years for Junts to reach this conclusion? What has been broken and, above all, when, if in the end it seems that the amnesty will be able to be applied to former president Carles Puigdemont? L'ARA has reconstructed the key moments of this tortuous relationship that began in the summer of 2023 after years of little contact following the 'Procés'.

The beginning of it all

Junts receives the first signals from the PSOE when it becomes clear that Pedro Sánchez will need Carles Puigdemont's party to remain at the Moncloa. The negotiations are taken on personally by the former president of the Generalitat, who assumes from the very first moment that the game must be played: the condition sine qua non is amnesty and an international mediation regarding the political conflict. The skeleton of the law is almost agreed upon, the investiture is completed, and a dialogue process begins between the two parties in Switzerland with the presence of the specialized Henry Dunant foundation and the Salvadoran mediator Francisco Galindo. The participants at the table are Puigdemont, Jordi Turull, and the Junts spokesperson in Madrid, Miriam Nogueras, facing the former Spanish president José Luis Zapatero, the PSOE organization secretary, Santos Cerdán, and his right-hand man, Juan Francisco Serrano.

At first, the method is followed. Monthly, there are meetings in Switzerland and a series of folders pile up that will be dragged throughout the entire legislative term: apart from the amnesty, the transfer of immigration powers to the Generalitat, the official status of Catalan in Europe, or the publication of fiscal balances.

The breakdown of trust

The first major crisis, however, arrives early, when there is a disagreement in the drafting of the amnesty law and Junts decides to strike down the bill in Congress on January 30, 2024. The key was the exclusion from the law of crimes of terrorism, embezzlement of public funds, against national security, and treason. This is what the 'juntaires' are demanding so that it passes Europe's filter. The moment of crisis is reflected in Zapatero's diaries, now in the hands of the National Court. "Mess with Junts", he communicated to his secretary at that time, at the same time as he multiplied his contacts with Félix Bolaños, who was steering the negotiations on the amnesty on behalf of the PSOE. Unlike Santos Cerdán, with whom Junts—especially Turull—maintained a good relationship until his fall in June 2025, Bolaños never had chemistry with the 'juntaires'. For this reason, when Cerdán leaves the equation, it is Zapatero who pilots the negotiation in Switzerland.

It is precisely in the summer of 2025 when the definitive breakdown of trust between the two parties occurs. The main reason: Junts believes that the PSOE is playing with the timing of the amnesty at the Constitutional Court to keep them tied to Sánchez for the entire legislature. One year after approving the amnesty—on May 30, 2024—and with the Supreme Court blocking Puigdemont's return, the 'juntaires' consider that the Constitutional Court could have done much more to apply the law: accepting, for example, the precautionary measures requested by the former president's defense and, at least, allowing a quick return to Catalonia. It was not so: they were rejected one after another, and the president of the Constitutional Court, Cándido Conde-Pumpido, decided to weave his own strategy that has culminated now, at the end of Sánchez's term: waiting for what the EU Court of Justice might say regarding the preliminary rulings that the Court of Auditors had raised, and then proceeding to resolve the appeals for protection (recursos de amparo).

The point of no return

After the ultimatum of August 2025, Junts decides that the time has come to break away, since beyond the non-application of the amnesty, there is also no progress on the official status of Catalan in the EU and Podemos destroys in Congress the possibility of delegating immigration powers to the Generalitat. This is announced by Puigdemont himself on October 27 in a meeting with the leadership in Perpignan, a decision that the membership endorses by a large majority. "They may have the power, but they will not be able to govern," warned the former president.

The rupture, however, was consummated a year later with the 'no' to the housing decree laws. In Junts, they have felt deceived again by the content that the PSOE and Sumar approved in the Council of Ministers, while the Spanish government has also felt betrayed after the Junts members did agree to explore a pact. In short, the relationship has gone poorly to the point that Junts says it will not invest Pedro Sánchez again. However, for the Spanish government, once Puigdemont can return, it will be proven that the PSOE has indeed kept its word, at least regarding the amnesty.