The executive of Together for Catalonia (Junts) will, this Monday, learn the result of the talks held at the weekend between Catalan president Pere Aragonès and Jordi Turull to address whether it is possible to redirect the crisis of the coalition government between Junts and the Catalan Republican Left (ERC), a crisis that reached the point of maximum tension last Wednesday with the dismissal of vice president Jordi Puigneró. The reticence maintained by both parties leads one to think ambivalently that either they have not reached an agreement or else they have preferred to maintain their discretion to try and save the executive. It is, without a doubt, the deepest crisis that the Catalan government has had since its constitution in June 2021, a few months after the February 14th elections, and after the ERC-Junts coalition agreement, which was not reached without significant difficulties but preserved the pro-independence parties' 52% majority by votes from those elections.
The Junts executive that will meet this Monday morning will have two matters on the table: firstly, to hear the status of the weekend's negotiations and if there is any element that will allow the current wreck to be salvaged. It is also important to know if the party's management will mark an official position on Aragonès's response or will simply take note of the results that are there. Secondly, the executive will have to confirm the date of the consultation of Junts party members which, as secretary general Turull and party president Laura Borràs announced last week, is expected to be the 6th and 7th, that is, this Thursday and Friday.
We are therefore facing a decisive week for the Generalitat government and, consequently, for the stability of Catalan politics. It is true that the Catalan executive has had a considerable degree of instability, although not in a way that is at all exceptional in coalition governments where the two partners finished practically neck and neck in terms of seats in Parliament and electoral results.
The real struggle, in fact, has not been in the government but between the parties that make it up and, consequently, the bickering has remained outside the cabinet room. This has caused a deep mistrust that erupted after the peculiar Junts move to ask Aragonès to submit to a confidence vote. Although the emphasis has been placed on the loss of confidence resulting from the parliamentary announcement not being shared with its partner earlier, the key point, in my opinion, is that it is simply too frivolous a proposition. I wish I had found a relevant precedent somewhere, but I must admit I have not been able to.
One last note: it is possible that each of the two disputing parties, ERC and Junts, believe they have sufficient advantage to make their rival give way. They forget, however, that the political objective that has been the driving force behind the mass pro-independence demonstrations held since 2012, the 2014 consultation and the 2017 referendum has been based on a framework of unity. Does anyone think that it would be easier to make progress separately?