Junts withdraws no-confidence motion against Spanish PM Sánchez

Pro-independence party executives unanimously agreed on Monday to withdraw a non-legislative proposal containing a motion of no confidence against Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.

The decision was made following a meeting on Sunday with the international mediator, Francisco Galindo, who requested the pro-independence party not to present the proposal to avoid a “rupture” that would be difficult to overcome in the relationship between the Junts and the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE).

During a press conference on Monday, Junts’ general secretary, Jordi Turell, said that they were withdrawing the motion at Galindo’s request “to make a last effort to avoid a total breakdown” in relations with the Spanish socialists. Turull added that “we have a level of confidence in the mediator that we do not have in the PSOE.”

The withdrawal came just one day before the proposal was set to be debated in the Spanish Congress.

At the same time, PSOE was preparing to counter the motion by approving an adhesion to a European judicial protocol, known as Protocol 16, that could have curbed the non-legislative proposal.

During a press conference on Monday, Spain’s Minister of Territorial Policy, Ángel Víctor Torres, said that the withdrawal was “positive.”

What exactly is going on?

On December 9, Junts leader Carles Puigdemont announced that Junts had registered an initiative in the Spanish Congress to ask 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.

In early January, 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.