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The prime minister has a long ‘to-do’ list if he wants to keep Puigdemont happy.
News Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
The former Catalan president’s new threats come on top of his demand that Sánchez face a vote of no-confidence in parliament, which the Spanish prime minister has already ruled out. [EPA-EFE/OLIVIER MATTHYS]
Catalan separatist party JxCat will never be anyone’s political hostage, its leader Carles Puigdemont, warned in a direct warning to Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez (PSOE/S&D).
The former head of the Catalan regional government, Puigdemont, issued a warning to Sánchez on Saturday, demanding that he fulfil all of the agreements reached to have enough parliamentary support to remain in power.
Puigdemont, who remains in self-exile near Brussels after a fleeting visit to Barcelona last August – hoping to return to Spain following the recent enactment of a controversial amnesty law – warned: “We have never been nor have we ever wanted to be anyone’s hostage”.
Puigdemont warned that both he and his party were prepared to “bear political and personal costs” if the coalition government of the PSOE and the left-wing Sumar platform were to fall.
Puigdemont, ‘prepared’ to drop the government
“The (political) carrots that they put in front of us or could have put in front of us (with the agreement with the PSOE) do not deceive us, nor do they interest us. We want deeds and fulfilment and see things happen and are done differently,” Puigdemont said in a video message.
The former Catalan president’s new threats come on top of his demand that Sánchez face a vote of no-confidence in parliament, which the Spanish prime minister has already ruled out.
Last November marked the first anniversary of the signing of an agreement between the PSOE and JxCat, through which the separatist formation facilitated Sánchez’s inauguration by pledging conditional support to Sánchez in exchange for Madrid’s full implementation of the agreement.
JxCat’s seven MPs in Madrid, the other seven from its left-wing Catalan separatist rival ERC, and the votes of the two main pro-independence Basque parties, PNV and EH Bildu are essential to ensuring the government’s survival until the end of the current term in 2027.
At stake is not only the continuity of the coalition but also the approval of the 2025 national budget, which JxCat rejected last summer because, according to Puigdemont, it does not guarantee Catalonia’s interests.
In the same threatening vein, the separatist leader warned last week that he did not fear the consequences should he decide to withdraw his support.
Both he and JxCat are “prepared for anything that can happen”, he insisted, while describing Sánchez as a “persistent defaulter”.
“Let no one think that we will not maintain our position”, Puigdemont added.
Sánchez has repeatedly stated that he has no intention of calling early elections if he loses the support of JxCat and the ERC.
Sánchez’s long ‘to-do list’
In an attempt to defuse tensions, members of Sánchez’s PSOE will meet again with representatives of JxCat in Switzerland this week.
Despite Puigdemont’s aggressive stance, political analysts suggest that his threats are part of a strategy to reaffirm that JxCat will not give an inch on its demands, including holding an independence referendum in Catalonia, which the Spanish Constitution prohibits.
Sánchez’s list of unfulfilled promises to JxCat and ERC includes – as Puigdemont recalled – the transfer of powers over migration policy and the creation of an autonomous tax collection system similar to that of the Basque Country and Navarre.
The prime minister’s ‘to-do list’ includes making Catalan one of the official languages of the Spanish parliament and the EU institutions.
Although the Sanchez government has so far failed to make Catalan an official EU language—partly due to the reluctance of Sweden and other EU partners—Madrid has renewed its diplomatic efforts to achieve this goal in recent weeks.
RTVE reported that Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares (PSOE) urged the incoming Polish rotating EU presidency to speed up efforts to grant official status to Catalan, Basque, and Galician in a letter sent last week to his Polish counterpart, Radoslaw Sikorski.
(Fernando Heller | EuroEFE.Euractiv.es)
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