The same Alberto Núñez Feijóo who at the beginning of the year linked Junts with terrorism is now open to agreeing with Carles Puigdemont’s party. In January, Feijóo assured “terrorism is terror” and that during the process “there were days of absolute terror.” And he even blurted out that the independence movement was “the ‘kale borroka’ in Catalonia.” But eleven months later, this same Tuesday, the PP spokesperson in Congress, Miguel Tellado, welcomed Junts “to his side of the wall.” And this Wednesday Feijóo also extended his hand to the pro-independence party when he questioned Míriam Nogueras, spokesperson for the post-convergents, in Congress: “I already told you a long time ago that Sánchez is not trustworthy.”
The relationship between Junts and the PP had been deteriorating until a practically total rupture on the eve of the elections on June 23, 2023. The central role of Puigdemont’s party in the process and the treatment that the Popular Party has given to the independence movement seemed to leave far away that pact dynamics between CiU and leaders such as former president José María Aznar.
Before the general elections last year, and throughout the electoral campaign, Feijóo assured that he would never agree with the pro-independence parties and that the PP had no “trap or cardboard.” However, this Tuesday, after the agreement with Junts to repeal the tax on electricity generation, Tellado assured that he felt “tremendously satisfied with the agreement reached.”
In August 2023, after the blow of reality that the PP suffered at the polls on 23J and despite Genoa’s timid attempts to build bridges with the post-convergents to have some chance at Feijóo’s investiture, the harsh words continued. The hard wing of the party, embodied by Alejandro Fernández, leader of the party in Catalonia, and Isabel Díaz Ayuso, president of the Community of Madrid, were the most forceful.
The Catalan leader assured that “Junts is his rival” and, through his account on
Isabel Díaz Ayuso, president of the Community of Madrid, has been clear about any pact between the PSOE and Junts: “They have snuck a dictatorship in through the back door,” she said after the pact for the Amnesty Law. A few months later, he declared in an interview on Telecinco that “what happened in Catalonia is unforgivable” and that he would not go with Junts “not even around the corner.” In addition, he assured that Carles Puigdemont, leader of the party, should “sit on a bench, be prosecuted and convicted.”
Regarding the agreements reached in the amendments to the Amnesty Law related to terrorism crimes, Feijóo took advantage of an event in memory of Gregorio Ordóñez, a politician murdered by ETA, to ensure that “terrorism is neither agreed upon nor forgiven, it is investigated and condemns until the end.” He also rejected any attempt to “pretend that terrorists are democrats and peace-lovers,” calling the pact “unworthy.”
Now, concrete agreements and good words
The 180 degree turn has occurred in recent weeks. The same leaders who repudiated Puigdemont’s leaders validate the party as an interlocutor and even as a partner to approve proposals in Congress. This same Tuesday PP and Junts supported another pact, in this case to once again suspend the tax on electricity generation.
But it’s not the first. The popular ones have already managed to reach an agreement with the post-convercentes to knock down the bill to limit seasonal and room rentals, to repeal taxes on banks and higher incomes or to knock down a proposal on end-of-life care .
Leaving aside the specific pacts, which the popular people attribute to “ideological coincidences”, the PP continues trying to bring positions closer to those of Puigdemont. The growing pressure from Junts on the Government, with the recent demand for a motion of confidence and the pact to overthrow the tax on electricity generation, has served as a pretext for this Tuesday Miguel Tellado to welcome them “to his side of the wall ”.
Other government partners, such as ERC, are uncomfortable with this approach. Gabriel Rufián, spokesperson for the Republicans, warned this Wednesday in the halls of Congress that he is “absolutely convinced that Junts will, sooner or later, make Feijóo president.” Rufián had already stated on other occasions that “there is a ghost” that haunts Congress: “The one from the right and the extreme right of PP, Vox and Junts.”
This Wednesday’s control session has served for Feijóo to give another nod to the independentists, charging against the Government and directly questioning Míriam Nogueras: “We already told you that [Pedro Sánchez] “I wasn’t trustworthy.”
Junts, for Feijóo’s PP, has gone in a few months from being that party led by a criminal who escaped in Waterloo, to becoming a formation deceived by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and a partner to approve initiatives in Congress.
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