The Junts executive unanimously advocates breaking with the PSOE

The 6,000 Junts members and their leadership will determine the future of the legislature between Wednesday and Thursday, with a referendum in which they must decide their relationship with the PSOE from now on.

Once again, the party's president, Carles Puigdemont , has had his way, convincing both the party's core (who met on Sunday) and the executive branch. The decision will be made official at a press conference at 5:00 PM.

Specifically, Junts will put an end to the so-called Brussels Agreement . This is the name given to the pact reached in the fall of 2023 with the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party), in exchange for facilitating Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's continued position in the Moncloa Palace after losing the general elections held in the summer of that same year.

The PP won those elections, and Junts secured the seven seats it secured as decisive. In return, they obtained several prerogatives, such as the controversial amnesty law, which was approved by the Cortes in June 2024, although, for now, it has not been applied to Puigdemont. The Supreme Court is keeping the case against him open, and an appeal to the European Court of Justice is awaited, following the progressive majority of the Constitutional Court's assertion last summer that this law complies with fundamental law.

Two years of encounters and disagreements

The pact between the PSOE and Junts only contemplated the latter's support for the investiture, but not for the rest of the votes. From the outset, the neo-convergents made it clear that their objective would be to act as a pivot and exert pressure to the bitter end in all negotiations.

In some of these cases, Junts obtained additional prerogatives, such as when, in early 2024, it obtained the PSOE's commitment to transfer migration management to the Generalitat (Catalan Government). Junts maintains that this point has not been implemented, despite the recent agreement between the central and Catalan governments that expands regional powers in this regard and will allow the presence of the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan Police) at border crossings.

Junts and ERC also secured the government's commitment to reforming regional financing in 2023, although both parties maintain that the "bilateral" model that Sánchez is finalizing with the government headed by Salvador Illa falls far short.

Another disagreement has been over the working day . Second Vice President and leader of Sumar, Yolanda Díaz, failed to get Puigdemont's party to approve a reduction in the working week from 40 hours to 37.5 hours, despite traveling to Belgium herself. This is the country where the president of the neo-Convergents settled in the fall of 2017, after unilaterally declaring Catalan independence in the Parliament.

Precisely because of that leap into the void that no country in the world recognized, the Supreme Court keeps the case against him open, Junts has held its meetings in the south of France, specifically in Perpignan .

Given its parliamentary weakness, the government has been forced to extend the General State Budget (GSE) twice. Regarding the 2026 budget , the government acknowledged earlier this month that it lacked sufficient support to unblock it, although, in any case, the Ministry of Economy will submit the macroeconomic framework to Parliament today, one of the steps prior to its presentation.

The linguistic question

Another issue where Junts has been very combative is the issue of co-official languages. At the beginning of the legislature, the Neo-Convergents and Republicans secured the right for deputies who so wished to speak in Catalan, Basque, and Galician in the chamber of Congress, and for interpreters to be available to translate their speeches for other parliamentarians.

The next step is EU recognition, although the government has failed to muster sufficient support on this point, as the measure must be adopted unanimously. Several countries have been highly critical, including Germany . Last Friday, following threats from Junts, the executives led by Sánchez and the Chancellor, Christian Democrat Friedrich Merz, agreed to open a dialogue on this issue.

On this point, the PP asserted that the position of the EU's largest economy "has not changed." In fact, Alberto Núñez Feijóo's party shares a group in the European Parliament with the German Christian Democrats.

The turning point

It was last Wednesday, during the government oversight session in Congress , when Junts turned up the heat, asserting that "the time for change" had arrived. This was echoed by its spokesperson in the lower house, Míriam Nogueras , one of Puigdemont's closest and most loyal leaders.

These words come after various polls in recent months have indicated that if new Catalan elections were held, the neo-Convergents would suffer a setback . The biggest beneficiary would be the Catalan Alliance (AC), a recently formed far-right pro-independence party.

It was formed in 2020 as a local split from another far-right party, and ran in the municipal elections in June 2023. It won the mayoralty of Ripoll (Girona), the municipality from which the perpetrators of the jihadist attack that took place on Las Ramblas in August 2017 (on April 17 ) came. It was the list with the most votes, and in its investiture, it won the support of Junts, which refused to hold the mayoral office, despite the fact that the other parties represented on the council were willing to help them.

This municipality became the voice of AC, with a discourse that was openly Islamophobic, populist, racist, and supportive of the unilateral independence of Catalonia. In the 2024 Catalan elections, they won two seats . Some polls predict they could increase their current representation tenfold, and it was after these polls were released that the Junts leadership panicked.

This change of script was staged mid-month at the Junts municipal convention. Several of its mayors, such as Sant Cugat del Vallès (Barcelona), have imposed pre- registration checks. Others accuse the PSOE of blocking laws against repeated offenses and squatting.

The party has also been highly critical of the failed increase in the self-employed tax rate, and in the Catalan Parliament, they have insisted on tax cuts, although none of their polls have yielded any results, as the PSC, ERC, and En Comú Podem hold an absolute majority in the Catalan parliament.

Precisely, the fact that these three parties don't need Junts to achieve an absolute majority in both the Parliament and Barcelona City Council gives Illa and the mayor of the Catalan capital, Jaume Collboni, more breathing room to maneuver in the coming months. This is a margin Sánchez doesn't have, although this Monday the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) made an effort to downplay Junts' decision.

"Sánchez will continue even if he doesn't have the support of Junts," proclaimed the secretary of economic policy and deputy spokesperson for the executive branch, Enma López. What happens next remains to be seen.