The arrest of Puigdemont in Italy fuels the Junts war with ERC and strains the Aragonès-Sánchez relationship

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It was 10:40 p.m. this Thursday when the news broke: Carles Puigdemont, arrested in Sardinia by the search and arrest warrant of the Supreme Court. In Moncloa they had just learned of the arrest, “after it occurred”, confirmed sources of the Presidency. And at the headquarters of Junts per Catalunya, the party of ex-president fled, they knew nothing. They found out about the exclusive of EL ESPAÑOL, precisely, “by the press”.

Puigdemont, living in Waterloo (Belgium) for four years, planned to participate in the Sardinian city in the Adifolk International Gathering, an event sponsored by an association for the promotion of Catalan folklore. There he had moved this Thursday, where he was detained by the Border Police. In the next few hours, must go to the competent Italian court to examine the arrest warrant issued by the Spanish Supreme Court.

Once the euro order of the Supreme Court magistrate Pablo Llarena had taken Puigdemont into police custody in Alghero, the Sardinian Barceloneta and a Catalan-speaking city in the northwest of Sardinia, the main focuses of the news were in those two headquarters: that of the independence party heir to the old Convergència and that of the Spanish Government.

“An infernal relationship”

Because it is the leaders of Junts who they broke the so-called dialogue, negotiation and pact table just a week ago. The initiative was born from an agreement between Pedro Sánchez and a president of that party, one designated by Puigdemont. But now they conceive it as “a useless instrument”, driven by “a government without a word” and, ultimately, as “the result of Esquerra’s commitment to the PSOE.”

Now, whatever the arrest of Puigdemont ends, the fight between some independentistas with others will overheat. A minister defined the relationship between JxCat and Esquerra as “infernal “in conversation with this newspaper. “And that generates instability and fragility of the Catalan government”.

Now, that tension, undoubtedly, will be transferred to the relationship “of personal trust” that Moncloa said had arisen between Aragonès and Sánchez: the former convergents will corner the Republicans, fertilizing the arguments that he already wielded Jordi Sànchez, Secretary General and former leader of the ANC, a couple of weeks ago at a press conference.

“It is up to us to be the driving force behind the independence movement. We appeal to the unity of the 23 deputies in Madrid to not supporting Budgets of a Spanish Government that does not defend the interests of Catalonia … or are we going to keep it just out of fear of a worse one? “.

Fight coming from behind

The fight in the independence movement is an open secret: it was not only fueled by Moncloa, due to tactics, on the dates before “the Catalan and Spanish delegations” met in Barcelona on Wednesday, September 15; but was written on page 12 of the same government agreement between Junts and ERC: “JxCat’s skepticism and doubts about the results of the roundtable will not be an impediment to working and participating loyally in the process of dialogue and negotiation with the Spanish Government.”

After the unilateral declaration of independence (with brake and reverse, but responded with the application of 155 by the Government of Mariano Rajoy, supported by Pedro Sánchez’s PSOE), the internal anger within the independence movement ended up being public.

Puigdemont’s flight to Belgium, a country with a long tradition of mistreating legal requirements from the Spanish courts, contrasted with the permanence of its vice president Oriol Junqueras to face his arrest, preventive detention, trial and conviction… and then his reprieve, right.

Once the news of the arrest was published, the confusion was palpable in the environment of the president of the Generalitat, the Republican Pere Aragonès, who took almost an hour to say this mouth is mine. And he did it with a tough message, for fear of being branded a collaborationist: “Faced with persecution and judicial repression, the most energetic condemnation. It must stop. Amnesty is the only way. Self-determination, the only solution. By your side, President Puigdemont “, he finished by saying.

The term “repression” was the same that this week the senator from Junts was blaming him. Josep Lluís Cleries to the minister Felix Bolaños. And to which Aragonès himself recently resorted, after the appointment of the table, to urge Sánchez to advance “the solution for the thousands of reprisals for defending their ideas in Catalonia”. That is, the 1-O activists, the container-burning protesters, and those involved in the parallel administrative structures set up by separatism.

Long before, the leader of the opposition had marked a position, Pablo Casado, demanding that the leader of the “blow to constitutional legality” be tried and that Pedro Sánchez agrees not to pardon him “in exchange for staying in power.”

The Prime Minister sent tweets at the time of arrest. Proof that Moncloa was previously unaware of the news. And it is that Sánchez emitted messages in his account that, in view of the facts known later, could seem frivolous.

The promoter of the “reunion table” with Catalonia entered into conversation with the pop band Coldplay to explain that his cabinet will donate 30 million against climate change. And another to Black Eyed Peas showcasing their commitment to global vaccination and donating 7.5 million vaccines to the Covax initiative …

Then he fell silent on the social network, and went to work. He had just finished his second visit to La Palma, back from a whirlwind trip to New York, to speak at the United Nations General Assembly.

This same Thursday, the Minister of Foreign Action of the Government, Victoria Alsina, from Junts, described the reunion table as “one more stage of the political conflict.” From Rome, where he had traveled to “hold meetings” that he refused to detail, he publicly regretted that “the president Puigdemont can go to Alghero and cannot go to Spain“He forgot that once his immunity as a MEP was lifted, the Euro order was fully in force.

Sánchez is now reeling from the parliamentary majority. To begin with, the “reunion” can be mortally wounded.

And refering to the things to eat, there is more than The planned support of ERC in the negotiation of the General State Budgets in question, opened this week by Bolaños, his minister of the Presidency … and coordinator of the meetings of the dialogue table. The “positive” atmosphere of the appointment with Gabriel Ruffian and the commitment started by both parties to get to work remains in stand by.

The technical groups were scheduled to meet next week, and the political teams should “coordinate with the Government,” according to Republican party sources.

But the cabinet of the Generalitat is not only ERC, the vice president Jordi Puigneró from the inside, the political leader Jordi Sànchez from the outside and the shadow of a Puigdemont behind bars in Sardinia by the action of the “repressive state” not only move more meetings away from the table, but also Sánchez’s parliamentary support falters for the remainder of the legislature.



Reference-www.elespanol.com

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