The first political breakthrough between Pedro Sánchez and the Catalan independence movement took place on Tuesday, when Junts annulled the law on seasonal rentals, but the first explanations had to be given on Wednesday, and precisely to Esquerra Republicana. ERC spokesperson, Gabriel Rufianasked him how much he thought the legislature would have left if this “alliance” remained in force.
“There is a ghost that walks through this building, the ghost of the right and the extreme right. A new bloc is forming: PP, Vox and Junts […] “What are you going to do to try to stop this?” Rufián asked the president. “These people are going to get it for free,” he said, referring to the fact that the government coalition has never stopped counting on the post-convergents as allies.
Rudián questioned this relationship of convenience between the government and Carles Puigdemont’s party, a formation with which ERC is waging a particular struggle for the hegemony of the independence movement. In fact, although the question was addressed to Pedro Sánchez, a good part of the spokesperson’s presentation was aimed at attacking his pro-independence rivals.
“We told them for a long time and they didn’t believe us,” he accused. “They said: ‘The juntas can’t go with those who beat the Catalans, no… no, man, against those who deny the Catalan nation… no…’,” he paraphrased, “but the truth is that they do. I don’t know the huge capacity of bleaching media with these people.”
For his part, Sánchez did not enter into the conflict and focused on emphasizing that the situation in Catalonia, after the action of his government over the last six years, is now “Much better than in 2017” and once again justified the single financing pact for Catalonia signed between the socialists and the ERC.
In this sense, the president valued the work of the ERC parliamentary group, with which he believes that “there is a lot of work to do” and affirms that his government has the ambition to continue three more years in La Moncloa.
