Pro-independence Catalan party ERC will support the motion of no-confidence in Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy, but have warned the motion's proponents, PSOE, that their "'yes' to Sánchez is [actually] a 'no' to Rajoy". The party's spokesperson, Joan Tardà, criticised PSOE for "having supported article 155 and given legitimacy to the existence of political prisoners", but said that there are differences between a PP government supported by Cs and a PSOE government supported by Podemos. On this basis he argued for his 'yes' to the motion: "our vote isn't in support of PSOE, it's in rejection of PP".
During his speech in the Congress, Tardà criticised PSOE's leader Pedro Sánchez for his role in the repression of the independence movement. If Rajoy doesn't resign and the motion of no-confidence passes, PSOE's leader will become prime minister of Spain. If this happens, Tardà called on him to open dialogue over Catalonia.
ERC's spokesperson said that Spain has two options over Catalonia: "opt for dialogue or for the authoritarian path of Erdoğan's Turkey". In this sense, he lamented that Spain has so far opted for "abusing its dominant position" and "abuse from the majority towards the minority" with "the force of the state".
Tardà said, in reference to last year's referendum, that "after 1st October nothing will be the same" and said that "we will never accept the criminalisation of peaceful disobedience". He also said he sees a "desire for revenge and punishment" in the state's reaction and called for PSOE to not follow in PP's footsteps, to instead support dialogue. Sánchez accepted this challenge in his reply, despite being strongly critical of the independence movement.
The differences expressed by Tardà and Sánchez in their speeches, however, haven't prevent ERC from supporting PSOE. They said that PP are the main culprits for the Catalan conflict with Spain and argued that they have to end with the PP government because "PP and Cs are obsessed with ending the Catalan education model".
ERC's spokesperson also used his speech to discuss the strategy he believes the independence movement has to adopt now. "To build the republic, there have to be more of us, but we're on the path to doing so", he said, adding that "we'll implement the republic when the people of Catalonia want".