A large part of Moncloa’s strategy to be able to achieve the general state budgets for 2025 consists of waiting for the most moderate sector to be strengthened at the Congress of Junts, in favor of reaching an agreement and returning to a position similar to that of Convergencia. . The Government would thus attempt to overcome the stage of Carles Puigdemont.
However, in Moncloa, we are beginning to admit that this path will be very complicated, at least in the short term, and that it will be inevitable to keep Puigdemont as interlocutor to ensure governability, with the difficulties of negotiation with the former president of the Generalitat.
They explain that Puigdemont mobilized to protect himself with his own Junts and block the way for this sector of “centrists”, who would be much more comfortable for Pedro Sanchez and its government.
This Wednesday, he met his deputies in Parliament in Waterloo to clarify his leadership and define the lines that Junts will have to follow in the months to come.
According to Puigdemont, there must be firm opposition to Salvador Illa and forcefully exercise its key role in maintaining central government. In fact, yesterday he asked his people to “go on the offensive.” He also remembered Pedro Sanchez which does not have an absolute majority, that is to say it depends on its seven deputies in Congress.
In recent weeks, the Executive has made representations to the economic sectors of Catalonia precisely so that they put pressure on the supporters of independence and allow the approval of budgets with a much more favorable deficit ceiling for municipalities and communities.
“Talk together”
“Pedro Sánchez doesn’t need to talk to him Economy Circle To send us some message, Pedro Sánchez must speak directly to Junts,” Puigdemont said during the meeting with his party leaders.
The good news for the Government is that Puigdemont is not closing the door to negotiation first on the trajectory of the deficit and, if necessary, then on the budgets. This last point is vital for Sánchez, because approving the accounts would give him oxygen to almost finish the legislature, even if they must be approved when the year 2025 has already started.
It is for this reason that members of the government fear that Puigdemont will end up abandoning the budgets to keep the future of Parliament in his hands. In other words, if he approved them now, Sánchez would feel strong to move forward without the need for agreements, and Junts would lose his power in Congress.
Junts is already negotiating with the Treasury the change in the trajectory of the deficit, linking the agreement to the immediate application of some of the commitments acquired in recent months. For example, the transfer of jurisdiction in immigration matters. The government hopes the deal will be concluded by mid-October at the latest.
The application of amnesty by the courts is fundamental in this negotiation. Puigdemont criticizes the Government for not having yet applied it and the news ensures that the Constitutional Court She will not make a decision until at least mid-2025.
The Government explains that it is not in its power to change the court schedule, but it is convinced that the deadlines can be accelerated. For the moment, the Constitutional Court has not yet ruled on the requests for cross-disqualification of magistrates.
