Junts is willing to vote with the Popular Party in Congress against laws such as the general state budgets to overthrow the Government of Pedro Sánchez if there is not “sufficient progress” in the negotiation space agreed upon in the investiture pact. It is the threat that Carles Puigdemont wanted to send to Madrid through the leader of the European People’s Party, Manfred Weber, during a private conversation held in Brussels on Tuesday night that led to news when it was overheard by a journalist from the organization organizing the event, Politico Europe.
It was the Junts leader himself who confirmed the content of the talk, ratified in the same terms by EPP sources. In any case, from the office of Puigdemont’s former president it was clarified that “in no case were formal proposals formulated and even less was a negotiation established for scenarios that belong to fiction, while the current attitude of the PP in relation to Catalonia and the collusion with Vox.”
In their brief conversation, according to Puigdemont’s office, they talked about the investiture pact signed by PSOE and JxCat and it was made clear that the post-convergents will support the Sánchez Government “based on compliance with the agreements”; and the situation of the European right and extreme right was also discussed.
In any case, the message, which is in line with JxCat’s warnings that they are not part of the progressive bloc, emerges a few days after the first meeting between the PSOE and Junts with an international verifier to supervise compliance with the agreements. . The event will take place this Saturday, December 2, in the Swiss city of Geneva.
“We could vote with the PP to tear down the budget or for a resolution on Israel, where our position is actually more aligned” with this party, Puigdemont told Politico, when one of his journalists in the room asked him if he could confirm the content. from the talk held with Weber. In it, the leader of Junts commented that a motion of censure – for which the participation of Vox is necessary – would be an option if the post-convergent and popular parties agreed on an independent president to replace Sánchez. “But for that, the PP must take a step towards us. They cannot continue treating me like a terrorist,” Puigdemont told Politico, who in his exchange with the EPP stressed that his only crime six years ago was placing ballot boxes in the 1-O referendum.
Popular European sources confirm the content of the conversation, in which Weber raised his concern with Puigdemont because, in his opinion, the tension between separatists and unionists is facilitating the growth of Vox. “You feed each other,” the German reproached him, according to these sources.
Puigdemont and Weber met by chance at the beginning of the gala organized by Politico Europe to reveal the list of the 28 most influential personalities in Europe in 2024. The Catalan politician appears in the category of “disruptors” in second position, behind Elvira Nabiullina, Vladimir Putin’s banker, and ahead of the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, and Weber himself, whom he presents as the murderer of the Green Pact, for his campaign against the nature restoration law.
The conversation lasted about five minutes (an eternity in politics) and was in fact the longest conversation held during the more than four years that the Catalan leader has been an MEP. The former president arrived with fellow European parliamentarian and former minister Toni Comín, who got involved in the talk and responded to Weber’s criticism with the possibility of calling a referendum through the current Constitution.
In statements to Politico, Puigdemont opted for a comparison that was as cinematic as it was provocative when referring to the inclusion of the term lawfare in the political pact between Junts and the PSOE, which has been so criticized by the associations of Spanish judges. The mention, the former president said, is a warning to judges and politicians who, in his opinion, have exceeded their duties. “The term lawfare is like the horse’s head in The Godfather: it is a warning that we are serious,” he asserted.
These words come a few days before the meeting at the negotiating table between Junts and PSOE. From both formations it is pointed out that the intention is to work with discretion. “It’s a work meeting, nothing more. We announced when we made the agreement that there were going to be meetings of this type, it is not the first nor will it be the last, therefore we should not give more importance to a work meeting,” said Santos Cerdán, number 3 of the party, yesterday. , from Congress. Precisely, on behalf of the socialists, Cerdán and his right-hand man, Juan Francisco Serrano, who already negotiated the investiture with the post-convergents, will attend the meeting. From Junts only the name of Puigdemont is given, but the presence of the general secretary, Jordi Turull, is also taken for granted.
Thus, the dialogue with the PSOE will be carried out by a small group of leaders, but the post-convergent training has advice from other people specialized in various fields. From the outset, JxCat will request the holding of a referendum through article 92 of the Constitution and, on the economic side, that the Generalitat be able to collect 100% of the taxes through the Tax Agency of Catalonia.
