The PP and Junts explored their possibilities of understanding at least in one meeting in the first half of August in Barcelona. There, a courtesy relationship was established that has been maintained by telephone, although it did not then bear fruit in a negotiation nor has it progressed since. It is a contact that is maintained in case both parties decide to use it during the legislature or in the event that Alberto Núñez Feijóo has a chance of becoming president of the Government.
The various and contradictory statements by PP leaders in the first weeks of August 2023 about whether or not to speak with Junts are better understood in light of the meeting that took place in those days and that La Vanguardia has been able to reconstruct. The president of the Junts group in the Parliament of Catalonia, Albert Batet, and the spokesperson for that party and councilor in Barcelona, ??Josep Rius, met in a private room at the Alma hotel in Barcelona, ??one of the few people Carles Puigdemont completely trusts. , along with the councilor of that city council, Daniel Sirera, from the PP, and the political communication expert Xavier Domínguez, who has advised several parties and who piloted part of Alberto Núñez Feijóo’s electoral campaign on July 23, when the general coordinator of the PP was Elías Bendodo.
Domínguez (Reus, 1974) is a consultant and has developed most of his professional career in the United States and Latin America. In Spain he first worked especially with the socialists. For example, in the Catalan campaign for the then candidate Miquel Iceta. But he has also participated in the preparation of campaigns for other parties, such as that of Xavier García Albiol in Badalona and, due to his profession, he maintains advisory services and good contacts with leaders of ERC and Junts. According to sources from the latter party, the interest in holding the meeting that took place at the Alma hotel came from the PP, before the negotiation for the constitution of the Congress Board.
In those first days of August, the popular ones were very confusing when referring to Junts in public. On the one hand, they harshly criticized that Pedro Sánchez wanted to make an agreement with “a fugitive from justice”, in reference to Carles Puigdemont. On the other hand, on August 10, Bendodo assured: “You have to talk to everyone, although that does not mean swallowing everything.” Despite this note, the next day the popular leader backed down and assured that “it is not on the table” to negotiate Feijóo’s investiture with Junts. The agreement between Puigdemont and the PSOE for the constitution of the Congress Board took place on August 17 and six days later, Esteban González Pons, one of Feijóo’s most trusted people, granted Junts the status of interlocutor: “It is a party whose tradition and legality are not in doubt.” And that same day, Feijóo himself was open to negotiating his investiture with Junts.
By then they already knew that this was a dead end, but it was also true that a link had been established between the PP and Junts that both wanted to preserve. At the Barcelona meeting, Junts interlocutors explained that they perceived the PP as a more reliable party than the PSOE, although right now their positions are very far apart. They also made it clear that they were looking for a pragmatic relationship, which they defined as “sex, not love.” And they presented the same conditions that they would later demand from the PSOE, including the negotiation of an independence referendum and the amnesty law. The popular ones did not accept, but the meeting was pleasant and sincere, according to sources from both parties, and served to open a channel of communication.
In addition to this meeting, some sources claim that a meeting also took place between González Pons and the general secretary of Junts, Jordi Turull. But both categorically deny it. In any case, both parties have left the doors open in public and private to an understanding in Congress on issues not linked to the independence agenda. Feijóo said in December that he will negotiate with Junts to overthrow government laws, such as housing: “With the pacts within the Constitution we have no problem.” At the same time, the Junts leadership insists on expressing its maximum distrust that the PSOE will comply with the signed pacts.
