It is the first time that the President of the Government has had the opportunity to have a public face-to-face with Junts since the staging of the breakup announced by Carles Puigdemont. And the pro-independence senator, Eduard Pujol, the first thing he did in the Senate Investigation Commission was to warn him that he was already intervening as an opposition to the Executive. “I suppose you already know, Junts comes as an opposition party to a non-compliant government. Your government has forced us to say that's it.”
Beyond the specific purpose of the president's appearance, summoned by the PP to give explanations about the so-called 'Koldo case', Junts have taken advantage of the opportunity to settle the pending accounts on the agreements that they consider have not been satisfied by the PSOE. “You have a tendency to act like Houdini, an escape artist, or like a shellbuster. And that doesn't help politics or you. It doesn't take you to prison, but it condemns you to losing support and living in the most absolute parliamentary weakness. And, if not, time after time,” he told the president.
In his response, Pedro Sánchez has downplayed Junts' solemnity regarding the alleged blowing up of bridges. “You come here saying that you have joined the opposition and I don't understand it very well, because you have always made a show of being in the opposition,” he replied.
The president has once again reached out to the Catalan independentists, whose seven votes in Congress are essential for the stability of the legislature and now they seem more on the line than ever. And it has valued the commitments acquired by its Executive.
“The Government is complying with its agreements. In what is in our power, the Government is complying. And in what is not exclusively in our power, it is working,” he noted before defending, once again, that the amnesty law must also cover the procedural situation of the former Catalan president who escaped from Justice. “The Constitutional Court has said that the amnesty is fully constitutional, we hope that it can be fully applied.”
“There is a clear objective, the total normalization of political life in Catalonia,” continued the president, who has asked the Junts senator to recognize his Government's efforts to repair the territorial crisis inherited from the Government of Mariano Rajoy. “The purpose is to return to the previous point at which we separated. Throughout these years I have opted for coexistence, for respect for self-government.”
He has also vindicated the investment policy in Catalonia in matters such as public transport or infrastructure. “I understand that you criticize Rodalíes' management because there are certain facts and a legitimate interest. But if there is a Government that has opted to improve the commuter infrastructure network, it is the current Government of Spain,” he concluded.
Despite the threat launched just 48 hours earlier, Puigdemont's supporters voted this Wednesday in favor of the opinion of the Consumer Care Law approved by the Commission, the first Government law that was debated in Congress after the appearance of the Junts leader.