Together, he is ready to vote with the Popular Party in the Congress of Deputies against laws such as the general budgets of the State to topple the central government of Pedro Sánchez if there is not "enough progress" in the negotiation space that was agreed on investiture agreement It is the threat that Carles Puigdemont wanted to send to Madrid through the leader of the European People's Party (EPP), Manfred Weber, in a private conversation that they had in Brussels on Tuesday night that led to news after it said a journalist from the medium 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 the former president of Puigdemont it was clarified that "in no case were formal proposals formulated and, even less, to establish any negotiations for scenarios that belong to political fiction as long as the current one is maintained attitude of the PP in relation to Catalonia and collusion with Vox".
In the short conversation, according to Puigdemont's office, they talked about the investiture pact signed by the PSOE and JxCat and it was made clear that the post-convergents will support the Sánchez Government "depending on the fulfillment of the agreements", and it was also comment on the situation of the right and the European extreme right.
In any case, the message, which is in line with the notices of JxCat that they are not part of the progressive bloc, emerges just a few days before the first meeting between the PSOE and Junts with an international verifier to monitor compliance with the agreements . The meeting will take place on Saturday in the Swiss city of Geneva.
"We could vote with the PP to overturn the budget or for a resolution on Israel, where our position is really more aligned" with this party, Puigdemont told Politico, when one of his journalists in the room asked him if he could confirm the content of the conversation he had with Weber. In this conversation, the leader of Junts commented that a motion of censure – for which Vox’s contest is necessary – would be an option if the post-convergents and the populists agreed on an independent president to replace Sánchez. "But for this the PP must take a step towards us. They can't continue to treat me like a terrorist", said Puigdemont to Politico, who in the exchange with the EPP remarked that his only crime six years ago was to have placed ballot boxes in the referendum of 1- O .
Popular European sources confirm the content of the conversation, in which Weber raised with Puigdemont his concern because, in his opinion, the tension between separatists and unionists facilitates the growth of Vox. "You feed off each other," the German reprimanded him, according to these sources.
Puigdemont and Weber met by chance at the start 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 in front of the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, and Weber himself, whom he presents as the killer of the Green Pact, for the campaign against the law to restore the nature.
The conversation lasted about five minutes (an eternity in politics) and, in fact, it was the longest conversation he has had in the more than four years that the Catalan leader has been an MEP. The ex-president arrived with the fellow member of the European Parliament and former councilor Toni Comín, who got involved in the talk and responded to Weber's criticisms with the possibility of calling a referendum through the current Constitution.
In statements to Politico, Puigdemont opted for a comparison as cinematic as it was provocative when he referred 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 ex-president suggested, is a warning to judges and politicians who, in his opinion, have exceeded their duties. "The term lawfare is like the head of a horse in The Godfather: it is a warning that we are serious", he asserted.
These words come a few days before the meeting of the negotiating table between Junts and the PSOE. From both formations it is pointed out that the intention is to work with discretion. "It's a work meeting, nothing more. When we made the agreement, we announced that there would be meetings of this kind, it is not the first and it will not be the last. Therefore, there is no need to give more importance to a work meeting", Santos Cerdán, number three of the party, said yesterday from Congress. Precisely, on the part of the socialists, Cerdán and his right-hand man, Juan Francisco Serrano, who already negotiated the investiture with the post-convergents, will go to the appointment. From Junts, only Puigdemont's name has been given, but the presence of the general secretary, Jordi Turull, is also taken for granted.
Therefore, the dialogue with the PSOE will be carried out by a small core of leaders, but the post-convergence formation has the advice of other people specialized in different areas to approach the negotiation. At the outset, JxCat will ask to hold a referendum through article 92 of the Constitution and, in the economic field, that the Generalitat can collect 100% of taxes through the Catalan Tax Agency.
