The first swords of Junts were deployed this Thursday by the media to explain and establish their own story about the vote that they had carried out a day before and that left the Government’s omnibus decree on empty paper. The arguments of the independentistas for slamming the door are diverse and have as a backdrop the crisis opened by the alleged non-compliance of the PSOE with the investiture agreement. But the reason most reiterated by everyone is that Junts had already told the Executive that it would not support an omnibus decree.
Formal issues can decide votes, but in Wednesday’s decision there was a premeditated strategy since, at least, last Friday, when the Junts management met in Brussels. The downpour that followed the joint vote of Junts, PP and Vox was also taken for granted in the independence party, although perhaps not of the intensity that they have experienced in the last 36 hours.
As he has been stating in public and private, Carles Puigdemont believes that they are facing a Rubicon of the legislature and that it is time for Junts to show maximum toughness in the negotiation if they want to be able to obtain results. “It is not sowing time, but harvest time,” summarized a party source a few weeks ago.
But in their ranks they are also aware that voting against measures such as the revaluation of pensions or public transport bonuses can be very unpopular, also among their own electorate.
The fear that the Junts voter may feel angry at the fall of some of the measures included in the omnibus has a demographic basis. According to the CEO, Junts is the third Catalan party with an oldest electorate, with an average of 57 years old, only behind PSC and PP, whose average is 59. Puigdemont’s ballot was also the second most chosen in the last elections by Catalan voters over 64 years of age.
Something similar happens with measures such as transportation. According to Renfe data, Catalonia has been the community where it has issued the most free transport vouchers, reaching 1.8 million titles in total in September 2024. Although the Catalan transport authority has assured that it will maintain its bonus, the fall of the Government decree means an increase in rates of up to 30% for Rodalies and Media Distancia users.
This contradiction between the interests of his electorate and the negotiating strategy is what has made the party’s spokespersons sweat, including Puigdemont himself, who has been lavish on social media in recent hours. Junts’ argument tries to reconcile reasoning that is difficult to reconcile, such as that the non-compliance of the PSOE is a sufficient reason to deny any support for its proposals and, immediately afterwards, that the party would vote in favor of the revaluation of pensions if the Government presented it as a single point.
This willingness of Junts to approve new decrees on pensions or on transport bonuses has been the float that the party has grabbed on to try to demonstrate that they are not responsible for the measures not having prospered. “If they want to engage in cheap demagoguery, it is because they care very little about pensioners,” said general secretary Jordi Turull in Rac1. Turull has also assured that they felt they were victims of “emotional blackmail.”
“What are you waiting for,” Puigdemont asked himself on his social networks. “More than 24 hours have passed since the Spanish Government failed to approve its omnibus macrodecree […] At this point we still haven’t seen them make any decisions. For example, they have not convened any council of ministers to approve the decrees that they already know had our vote in favor. Because? Because they don’t give a damn about retirees and users,” the former president stated categorically.
“The Government has done its job, it has proposed a royal decree that worked with all the parliamentary groups and agreed with the parliamentary majority,” Pedro Sánchez refuted in an appearance from Valencia. “Did those parties that voted against yesterday really vote for their citizens not to revalue pensions or to block public transport?” the president asked, returning the ball to Junts’ court, although The head of the Government has also appealed directly to the PP.
While the Junts spokespersons tried in public to pass the pressure on to the Government, in private an inventory of damages was being made. The Junts leadership does not believe that the accusation of coinciding with PP and Vox will barely make a dent in them, no matter how much rivals like ERC, which in recent hours have taken out their nails against Junts like few times before, hammer that image.
What voices from Puigdemont’s party do point out as a risk is the possibility that sectors of their own electorate may not fully understand the reasons why they now oppose decrees like these. Stretching the rope without breaking it has been Junts’ motto since last December, but, at the same time, the party is trying to maintain an image among business circles and the Catalan middle classes that are committed to predictability. And, in the face of these sectors, it is difficult to justify the monthly roller coaster in which Junts has plunged Congress.
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