When did the trust between the PSOE and Junts break?

Madrid / Barcelona"We will not vote for Pedro Sánchez because we have been burned". That is how the secretary general 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' conclusion to be this? What has 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 Process.

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 in La 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 sine qua non condition is amnesty and international mediation on the political conflict. The skeleton of the law is almost agreed upon, the investiture is carried out, and a dialogue process between the two parties begins 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 prime minister José Luis Zapatero, the PSOE's 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 along throughout the legislature: apart from the amnesty, the transfer of immigration powers to the Generalitat, the official status of Catalan in Europe, or the publication of the fiscal balances.

The breakdown of trust

The first major crisis, however, arrives soon, 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 rule of crimes of terrorism, embezzlement of public funds, national security offenses, and treason. It is what the Junts members demand so that it passes Europe's filter. The moment of crisis is reflected in Zapatero's agendas, now in the hands of the National Court. "Mess with Junts", he communicated to his secretary at that time, while at the same time multiplying 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 a feeling with the Junts members. That is why, 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 tempo of the amnesty at the Constitutional Court to keep them tied to Sánchez for the entire legislative term. One year after approving the amnesty—on May 30, 2024—and with the Supreme Court blocking Puigdemont's return, the Junts members consider that the TC could have done much more to apply the law: to accept, for example, the precautionary measures requested by the former president's defense and, at least, allow 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 mandate: to wait for what the EU Court of Justice might say about the preliminary rulings that the Court of Auditors had raised and then proceed to resolve the appeals for protection.

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 kills in Congress the possibility of delegating immigration powers to the Generalitat. This is announced by Puigdemont himself on October 27 at a meeting with the leadership in Perpignan, a decision that the membership endorses with a wide 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 in the Spanish government they have also felt betrayed after the Junts members did agree to explore a pact. In short, the relationship has gone badly 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 shown that the PSOE did keep its word, at least regarding the amnesty.