With the motion of no-confidence he has brought in Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy, Pedro Sánchez has an "opportunity". That was the comment from the leader of pro-independence Catalan party PDeCAT in the Congress, Carles Campuzano, who saw positively certain "corrections" in Sánchez's speech. Despite saying they were "sceptics", he also predicted that Sánchez would be able to solve the Catalan conflict "in the democratic sense". PDeCAT will support the motion "to oust Rajoy".
"This motion is an opportunity, it depends on PSOE", said Campuzano, who suggested that PSOE has "had some responsibility" in the deterioration of democracy and the enacting of article 155 of the Spanish Constitution. "It's kept quiet in the face of the repression and the violation of rights," he said. He also criticised the insults against Catalan president Quim Torra, which he described as a "Spanish nationalist auction".
Nonetheless, Campuzano said that Sánchez has today "made some statements which we value", for example, that the origin of the Catalan problem was in the Constitutional Court verdict against the new Statute of Autonomy and his recognition of president Torra as a valid negotiating partner. He warned that "without understanding that a solid democracy has to find legal paths, it will be hard to resolve the crisis Catalonia has seen in the democratic sense".
Campuzano described the motion as "totally justified", because, he says, Rajoy has to assume responsibility for a problem which goes beyond the Gürtel corruption case which directly provoked the motion. He denounced the treatment of the Catalan crisis, but also the "debasement" of the Spanish legal system and the "persistence of the Francoist culture".
"The authoritarianism with which they've replied to the Catalan request can only be understood through that Francoist trace," he said. In this context, he also cited the rise of Ciudadanos, a party he said "forms part of the problem and not the situation".