The bridges between Junts per Catalunya and the PNB, damaged by the process, have been rebuilt this past year on the political level, given that the personal relations between the leaders of the two organizations were not affected by the situation. A proof that harmony has returned between two spaces that had been together in the elections to the European Parliament is that today the two formations meet in Bilbao, in Sabin Etxea, the headquarters of the Jeltzales. They will share strategy and work on coordination with an eye on the Congress of Deputies.
During the negotiations for the investiture of Pedro Sánchez, JxCat and PNB have already coordinated and in recent weeks there were two visits – in Belgium – by the president of the Euzkadi Buru Batzar, Andoni Ortuzar, to Carles Puigdemont, who controlled and directed the negotiation with the socialists at all times even though he has no organic position. In turn, the general secretary of Junts, Jordi Turull, went at the end of September to the annual party of the Basque nationalists, the Alderdi Eguna, and just a week ago the two parties jointly registered two petitions in the Lower Chamber of the creation of investigative commissions related to Catalonia, without the Left.
So, this afternoon’s meeting in the city of Biscay will be led by Ortuzar and Turull. They also go to Sabin Etxea Joseba Aurrekoetxea, Ortuzar’s right-hand man; its leader in the Congress of Deputies, Aitor Esteban; the spokeswoman for JxCat in Madrid, Miriam Nogueras, and the president of the Catalan Parliament group, Albert Batet.
Since last spring, the ties between the two formations have tightened and in the new political scenario, in which Sánchez depends on several parliamentary groups – including that of Junts and that of the PNB – to move forward the legislature, the two organizations will join forces, especially in the economic field, taking into account that in the post-convergent space and in the Jeltzal ranks they do not have all of them with respect to some aspects of the socialists’ agreements with other forces of the left.
In this sense, on the same day that the agreement between Junts and the PSOE was initialed in Brussels – the two signatories, Turull and Ferraz’s number three, Santos Cerdán, established the first contact before the generals through of the PNB – a prominent leader of JxCat highlighted the coordination with the Basques and admitted that in the program agreed between the Socialists and Sumar there are issues that cause alarm in the more liberal wing and close to the company of his party, due to issues such as reducing the working day to 37.5 hours, for example.
In fact, Junts has avoided being classified in the so-called progressive or left-wing bloc, a fact that, they point out themselves, sets them apart from ERC.