Since the beginning of the talks between the PSOE and Junts, towards the end of last August, Carles Puigdemont included among his conditions a meeting with Pedro Sánchez. The aim was to convey the message that the former president of the Generalitat, despite his escape from Spanish justice, is recognized as a political actor for all purposes. It is a rehabilitation of his figure, vilified since his dismissal through article 155 of the Constitution. This is not a minor gesture.
The leader of Junts thought he could obtain the photo of an informal meeting taking advantage of Sánchez’s appearance in the European Parliament on the occasion of the Spanish presidency of the EU. It was scheduled for September, but was delayed due to the interim period after the general elections. The president rejected that photo until the investiture was guaranteed. In the end, he went to Strasbourg this week, already revalidated at the Moncloa.
But Puigdemont has not yet obtained the official status of Catalan in Europe, one of the “advance payments” he demanded. So this time the photo didn’t suit anyone. In addition, Sánchez will meet Pere Aragonès next week with all the ceremony of a date between two presidents. For Puigdemont, he would have known little about an informal meeting. And Sánchez had enough with his confrontation with the European right, which questions Spanish democracy due to the amnesty.
So it was left for another occasion, in the form of a more calm meeting. The photographers in Strasbourg could only capture the small distance between the two and their attempt to appear natural. The next day, to the anger of the PSOE leadership, Jordi Turull revealed that there will be a “proper” meeting between the two. Indeed, they will meet, although at the Moncloa, at the moment, they do not have a date and they would prefer that the appointment not have to take place abroad. Or that at least the arrest warrants against Puigdemont had already been lifted with the approval of the amnesty law so that Sánchez does not have to deal with someone who today appears, for legal purposes, as a fugitive from the Supreme Court.
At the same time that Junts demands gestures of political recognition from the PSOE, it also intends to appear as Sánchez’s most demanding partner. Junts not only competes with ERC, but also with the part of the party that joined during the process due to its combative independence activism and even with the myth of the former president as a standard-bearer of “intelligent confrontation” with the State.
So one day Puigdemont measures his words in the European Parliament before Sánchez without focusing on the “repression of the State” and the next day his spokesperson in Congress, Miriam Nogueras, attacks the judges, whom he describes as “indecent.” with names and surnames. Just when the Minister of Justice, Félix Bolaños, tries to appease that front.
Junts managed to introduce the term “law fare” referring to judges in the political pact signed with the PSOE, but not in the amnesty law as initially attempted. Still, it has sparked outrage in the judiciary. The Government distinguishes between the Supreme Court and the General Council of the Judiciary. The second is considered lost. He considers it a mere executing arm of the PP. Even Sánchez used the word “law fare” to refer to the CGPJ. But the Supreme is something else. The minister tries to rebuild institutional respect with that court. And Nogueras cited two of the Supreme Court judges who have decisions on the amnesty in their hands: Manuel Marchena and Pablo Llarena, whom Bolaños telephoned to guarantee that the Government does not share in any way what the Junts spokesperson said.
While the amnesty is pending, Sánchez is guaranteed the support of Junts. Beyond that, everything depends on the result of the Catalan elections, probably in a year, which will be decisive for the course of the Spanish legislature. At the Moncloa they trust that Salvador Illa will achieve the presidency of the Generalitat. If so, the PSOE will have an easy time justifying its pacts with the independence movement, including the photo with Puigdemont or the return of the former president to Catalonia, which he sees as triumphant. If not, all of this could be very indigestible for the PSOE. Sánchez trusts everything to the ‘Illa effect’.
