The head of the Juntas, Carles Puigdemontthreatened the government once again as a socialist delegation travelled to Switzerland to try to convince the pro-independence leader to approve the next General State Budgets (PGE).
“Our political vocation It’s not about giving stability or wearing anyone out.“Our goal is to defend Catalonia and the interests of the Catalans, and whoever helps us will have our support, whether to govern or to form the opposition,” Puigdemont wrote on the social network X.
His message was a response to information from the Europa Press agency in which he claims that “Feijóo is open to negotiating with Junts and the PNV to exhaust the government”, after the Catalan party “came out to vote against the spending cap”.
Puigdemont therefore continues to maintain pressure on the government but also avoids making a nod to the PP.QWHO deceive us (or make the partridge dizzy), that it doesn’t count [con nosotros]”, he warns.
According to the independence leader, his party is not interested in “ideological blocs” or “internal rivalries maintained by the Spanish parties.” “We are not interested in being part of them,” he warns.
It does not surprise me that neither the media frenzy nor the lack of rigour that accompanies it, neither one nor the other, I have understood well. Our political vocation is not to ensure stability or to exhaust anything. Our objective is to defend Catalonia and the interests of the Catalans, and that…
— krls.eth / Carles Puigdemont (@KRLS) September 21, 2024
He adds that his vote for or against the spending cap will depend on the revenues his party can obtain in Catalonia. Although Puigdemont’s party has not been particularly enthusiastic about the tax reform proposed in the agreement between the ERC and the PSC for the investiture of the Salvador Illawhich should take the form of new regional funding.
Meeting in Switzerland
In an attempt to convince the leader of the Junts, a PSOE delegation met He traveled to Switzerland this Friday, in order to rebuild bridges with this formation, according to eldiario.es and sources close to the meeting confirmed to EFE.
The meeting comes after the government’s latest parliamentary defeat Pedro Sanchez this week, when Junts rejected, together with PP and Vox, a proposal to regulate room and seasonal rental contracts.
The PSOE emissary is once again the Secretary of the Organization, Santos Cerdanwho has already attended other meetings of this type.
As of yet, no details about the meeting have been revealed, althoughI Minister of Digital Transition and Civil Service, Oscar Lopezsaid in San Sebastian on Saturday that his party would report on the matter.
The PSOE has always confirmed and “explained with transparency and normality” the meetings it has had, so it will be the party “that will confirm or not the meetings that will take place and report on them”, defended López during his presence in San Sebastian. Cinema Festival.
Between several fires
The PSOE is therefore between different fires. Because if Puigdemont puts pressure on them from one side, in ERC they do it from the other. The secretary general of the Republicans, Marta Rovira, This Saturday, he demanded “resounding progress” from the PSOE in respecting the agreement between the two on financing and also threatened to separate if this was not achieved.
“It will be practically impossible for us to start a dialogue or a budget negotiation for 2025 if we do not see resounding progress, if we do not see effective compliance, if we do not see that the agreement that we have collectively approved is respected with great rigor and enthusiasm,” he said at the start of the ERC National Council at the party headquarters.
Rovira added that if the CPS does not comply with the agreements envisaged in the investiture pact “we will reach the end of the road“.
Meanwhile, the PP criticises this same autonomous reform, while it is being negotiated bilaterally in Switzerland.
The popular Assistant Secretary of Health and Education, Esther Muñozsaid this Saturday that It is “incredible” and not “understood” that “we cannot talk about financing at the Conference of Presidents and yet the general budgets of Spain can be negotiated in Switzerland with Puigdemont.”
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has already started a series of contacts with the regional presidents. The Andalusian president, Juanma Morenoand Galician, Alphonse Rueda -the first to attend La Moncloa with the lehendakari Imanol Pradales– They have already asked Sánchez to withdraw the “Catalan concert”.
