Critical Decision Looms for Junts on Parliamentary Support in Madrid

The Catalan separatist party Junts will re-evaluate its pivotal support for Spain's central government due to a new political landscape. Factors include changes in the Catalan government and issues with the amnesty law passed last May, aimed at pardoning those involved in the 2017 secession attempt.

The Catalan separatist party Junts is considering whether to continue its crucial parliamentary support for the central government in Madrid. This comes as the political landscape in the wealthy northeastern region has significantly altered.

Junts' secretary general, Jordi Turull, highlighted the new Catalan government led by Socialist Salvador Illa, who opposes independence, and complications with a law granting amnesty to those involved in a failed 2017 secession attempt, as key factors in the decision-making process. He mentioned that a tax-related pact between the Socialists and the moderate separatist party ERC, which facilitated Illa's governance of Catalonia, had shifted the terms under which Junts initially supported Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's central government last year.

Turull warned that Junts' support would have 'a very narrow path forward or no path at all' unless Madrid robustly defended the full enactment of the contentious amnesty law in the judicial system. 'The situation has changed a lot because of the context and the parameters that made our deal (to support the Socialist-led government) possible, and we have to see whether it makes sense,' Turull stated. Although the amnesty bill, passed in May, aimed to pardon those engaged in the 2017 independence effort, Spain's Supreme Court upheld arrest warrants for former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont and two others accused of embezzlement, declaring that the amnesty law does not cover them.

(With inputs from agencies.)