It had been seven months since the leader of Junts had offered a press conference. This Monday he appeared before the media although he limited the questions to the only topic he wanted to address, something that is always difficult to understand but is even more incomprehensible when dealing with a politician who was a journalist. Puigdemont only wanted to talk about the PSOE and that is what he did.
Junts sought to give Pedro Sánchez a wake-up call, although his request, that the President of the Government submit to a question of confidence, was answered in less than an hour. Sánchez will not do it. And then what? Well we’ll see. The independentists could try to ensure that although there is no question of trust, a debate can be held. It is not even a substitute for what Puigdemont claimed, but in this way all the groups could give their opinion and they would have a day of protagonism. In any case, the Board would be the one that would have the last word to decide whether or not to accept this debate.
Junts has one trick, the only one, and that is not to approve the Budgets to the Government and for it to try to survive as best it can. The real threat, supporting a motion of censure led by Feijóo, is not in the plans of the independentists since it would mean embracing not only the PP but also Vox. Evicting Sánchez like this is a “fantasy” of the popular people, as defined by the number two of Junts, Jordi Turull, every time he is asked about this possibility.
The post-convergents have discovered something that ERC learned a long time ago and that is that the PSOE pays in advance is not usually the case. Sometimes because it does not depend only on the will of the Government (the best example is the application of the amnesty) and on other occasions because, for example, when it comes to compliance with the State’s investments in Catalonia, both popular and socialist promises figures but they execute others that are always much lower (Junts’ calculation is that last year they did not even reach half).
“How can we negotiate with these defaulters?” Puigdemont asked himself in reference to his possible support for the accounts presented to them by the Government. Despite the forcefulness of the Junts leader in emphasizing that “Sanchez’s credit is in the red” it is early to deduce that the Executive could forget about having Budgets. The suspicion of the PSOE is that Junts seeks to increase the price of its support for the accounts. It would not be new for the post-convergents to try to show that they are capable of bending the socialists further while the rest of the groups that act as their allies appear more docile. Furthermore, in Catalan code, the recipient is the same as always: ERC.
Both the PSOE and the PSC consider that the Junts order also has to do with the Republican congressional process. The militancy will decide this Saturday whether to once again anoint Oriol Junqueras as president of the party. He is the favorite and has all the numbers to regain the presidency of ERC. The first vote served to verify that the party is divided almost equally between those who want Junqueras to continue and those who reject his return. One of the reasons for debate, as has been seen during these weeks, is to what extent their support for the socialists, whether in Congress, the Parliament or the Barcelona City Council, is increasingly wearing them down and whether they should raise the price of their votes.
Those from Puigdemont want to demonstrate that they always achieve more than the Republicans and assure that they will not relax their demands and that in negotiations such as the transfer of powers in immigration, one of the most advanced, they are not satisfied with the central government is limited to entrusting the management to the Generalitat. The independentistas demand to be able to decide on residence permits, family reunification, expulsion orders or even border control.
With an independence movement in the minority in all the important institutions of Catalonia, Junts’ only viable bet is to appear as the party that conditions the central Executive in favor of Catalonia, who is capable of achieving even more than the PSC Government itself. This is a path that Artur Mas has already tried, with irregular results, and also the one that served Íñigo Urkullu in the opposition to wear down the then Lehendakari Patxi López.
There is still one more key that links Puigdemont’s gesture this Monday with the legacy of Convergència: to occupy a large electoral space, it is as effective to find a story that convinces the majority as it is to be able to send many different messages aimed at different sectors. ideological, from businessmen who demand economic policies more favorable to their interests to the hardline sectors of the independence movement who abhor agreements with the socialists.
After the Junts congress, the new vice president Toni Castellà gave several interviews in which he tried to reduce the tension towards the PSOE, conveying the party’s commitment to stability to the economic agents. This Monday Puigdemont addressed another type of voter, more grassroots, to express himself in the opposite direction. For now, both sectors of order and mobilized independentists have remained calm with what they have heard. Tomorrow we’ll see.
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