“The will is to coordinate from minute zero of the legislature because there are many issues in the social field and in the economic field and in the field of national and territorial debate that we share.” The general secretary of Junts per Catalunya, Jordi Turull, today summarized the intentions of his formation and of the PNV in Madrid. Both organizations will go hand in hand and will work in a coordinated manner to mark and condition the PSOE in different areas, both in relation to compliance with the agreements already sealed and in ensuring that the measures of the new central Executive do not invade powers or affect financing. of Catalonia.
At noon, at the Jeltzales headquarters in Bilbao, in Sabin Etxea, the leadership of the parties staged the good harmony that now reigns between them after a period of cooling in the relationship. In a statement issued after the meeting, headed by the president of the Euzkadi Buru Batzar, Andoni Ortuzar, and Turull himself, the post-convergents emphasize that both forces “share the need to mark from the beginning of the legislature a path of compliance with the commitments that Pedro Sánchez has acquired with Euskadi and with Catalonia”, and announce that two parliamentary groups “will work in the Cortes in a coordinated manner to fulfill the shared objectives.”
Likewise, from JxCat they refer to “joint mechanisms that can be established between both groups so that all measures and initiatives” of the central government “are respectful of Catalan and Basque self-government.”
Before the meeting, which was also attended by the spokespersons for both groups in Madrid, Aitor Esteban and Miriam Nogueras, as well as the person responsible for organizing the Jeltzales, Joseba Aurrekoetxea, and the president of the Junts group in Parliament, Albert Batet, Turull has detailed on Radio Euskadi that some aspects of the PSOE agreement with Sumar do not please his space. “There are many issues that unite us [with the PNV] and agreements between the PSOE and other political forces that do not bind us, such as the pacts that the PSOE has with Sumar,” remarked the leader of JxCat, who also pointed out that the socialists they already know it.
“We will use our strength to the extent possible and if the two political forces go together it is more likely that we will get our way in everything that affects matters of competence in Euskadi and Catalonia,” the post-convergent leader insisted.
From JxCat they give as an example of an issue that invades powers the housing law that Esquerra approved in the Congress of Deputies and that the Republicans have then agreed to appeal from the Parliament, dragged by the post-convergents.
In Turull’s opinion, Madrid’s parliamentary groups have to be “very attentive.” “From the Government, it comes from the factory, any legislation affects our own powers due to our respective statutes or affects the financing of Catalonia, that is why we are going to join forces,” he justifies.
The sovereigntist leader has also spoken about the political relationship between the two organizations, which has become much more established in this last year, since last spring. “With the PNV there are many more things that unite us than those that can separate us, we have already talked a lot in the negotiation of the investiture,” he stated. “We want to try to coordinate so that our votes are as useful as possible to our respective nations,” he added.
After the peak moments of the process, there was a certain political distance between the JxCat space and the jeltzales, but the situation has been reestablished and on a personal level there have always been links between leaders who have known each other since they were young. “A good relationship exists, it has always existed,” said Turull in this regard.
Former president Artur Mas also spoke about this in a radio interview broadcast today on Euskadi Irratia, the public radio station in Basque. “Some of us who had a very good understanding saw the distance with concern and now that situation has been fixed,” he noted. Furthermore, he has expressed his desire for Junts and PNV to leverage ideological issues such as the productive economy or the country model, and to balance forces with respect to Sánchez’s other allies. “I hope that the combination of political action will be able to balance some policies that can be made from Madrid, especially in the ideological field, in the country model and government action,” he stated. The former Catalan president does not have a JxCat card but has approached Turull’s party this last year.
