What's going on between pro-independence Junts and Spanish PM?

The uneasy alliance between pro-independence party Junts per Catalunya and Spain's governing Socialists has just about held together since November 2023, when Pedro Sánchez was re-elected Spanish Prime Minister with the help of Junts' votes.

But there is growing discontent within Junts over what they see as a failure of the Spanish government to fully implement the agreements reached between them, including the lack of an amnesty for Junts party leader Carles Puigdemont, who remains wanted by the Spanish courts over his role as Catalan president during the 2017 independence push.

What exactly is going on?

On December 9, Puigdemont announced that Junts had registered an initiative in the Spanish Congress to ask Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to undergo a vote of confidence, citing the "scant progress" on the commitments made.

The Spanish government dismissed the call from Junts, saying that legally "it is the Prime Minister's prerogative" to hold such a vote and that "there is no intention or need" to do so.

A week before Christmas, the Spanish Congress Bureau postponed a decision on whether or not to process Junts' non-legislative proposal (PNL) that calls on Sánchez to submit to a question of confidence.

On Thursday morning, the bureau again postponed the decision. It had been expected the motion would be rejected with the votes of the governing parties – the Socialists and Sumar – who have a majority in the bureau.

What happens now?

The issue "is being left to be studied," according to a bureau source, with no specific date set for a decision. 

The postponement buys the Spanish government some time to see if they can come to an agreement with Junts on how to proceed.

Tensions were rising before Thursday's meeting, with Junts secretary general Jordi Turull warning that his party would take decisions that "the Socialists will not like" if the bureau voted no.

Puigdemont had already summoned the party leadership to Brussels for a meeting on Friday, which will now take on a different flavor given the bureau's decision to postpone rather than reject the confidence motion initiative. 

After the bureau decision on Thursday, the first secretary of the Bureau, Comuns co-spokesperson Gerardo Pisarello, said the parties are continuing to study the initiative "to see how it can be adapted to the regulations," with the aim of being able to "continue talking about things that are important in Catalonia and Spain," such as "the implementation of the amnesty, budgets, rent caps, the minimum wage and reducing working hours."

Spain's Minister of Territorial Policy, Ángel Víctor Torres, has called on the pro-independence party not to "lose everything that has been built, and what can be built in the future."

ERC not in favor of confidence vote

While the Congress Bureau was ongoing on Thursday, the re-elected leaders of Catalonia's two main pro-independence parties were meeting in Waterloo, Belgium.

Puigdemont and Esquerra Republicana (ERC) leader Oriol Junqueras agreed to "start a new phase of relationships that help recover the strength and initiative of the independence movement."

On the Sánchez confidence motion, however, the two parties are not aligned. 

Junqueras told Spanish public broadcaster RTVE on Tuesday that the issue raised by Junts "does not contribute much," adding that "if it does not help at all, perhaps it is not necessary."