By Joan Faus
BARCELONA (Reuters) -Leaders of Catalonia’s regional pro-independence party Junts agreed on Monday to withdraw support from Spain’s leftist government, further complicating its ability to pass the budget and other legislation.
While the move – if approved as expected by grassroots members in an internal vote on Wednesday and Thursday – would not bring down the minority government, it could no longer lean on Junts’ seven seats in the 350-member house.
Junts was instrumental in 2023 in providing the key votes to reappoint Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez as prime minister.
Over the past two years, the party has provided its support on a case-by-case basis, usually in return for concessions from the government, which controls 146 seats and has relied on a variety of small regional parties to help push laws through.
“We see that there is no will from the Socialist Party to develop our political agreements,” Junts Chairman Carles Puigdemont told reporters in Perpignan, in France.
“We aren’t willing to help a government that does not help Catalonia,” he said. He accused the Socialists of failing to keep promises on a wide range of issues, from devolving immigration enforcement to Catalonia to making Catalan an official EU language.
ROLL-OVER BUDGETS
Puigdemont, who did not take questions, said that, if party members back withdrawing Junts’ support, the Socialists “will be able to stay in power, but without any capacity to govern” or pass a budget.
The government has rolled over its 2023 spending plan twice without even presenting a bill to parliament, and is yet to submit the one for 2026. Sanchez has signalled another year without a budget would not destabilise his government as he expects to complete the four-year legislature.
Puigdemont did not say whether Junts would back any potential motion of no-confidence against Sanchez.
Such a move would involve joining forces with the conservative People’s Party and far-right Vox, who fiercely oppose Catalonia’s self-determination and may prefer not to risk siding with the separatists.
Puigdemont led the region when its parliament briefly declared independence from Spain eight years ago. He was later deposed and went into self-imposed exile to avoid prosecution.
Junts’ support for Sanchez in 2023 came in exchange for a blanket amnesty for officials involved in the failed secession bid. But Spain’s Supreme Court has upheld arrest warrants for Puigdemont and several others charged with embezzlement, ruling that the amnesty law did not apply to them.
Deputy Prime Minister Maria Jesus Montero played down Junts’ move as part of “ups and downs” in their relationship, expressing hope they can patch up their differences.
(Writing by David Latona; Editing by Andrei Khalip, Alison Williams and Andrew Heavens)
