In the first face-to-face parliamentary encounter since the Catalan elections on May 12th, Míriam Nogueras, of Together for Catalonia (Junts), issued a clear warning to Spanish Socialist (PSOE) leader and prime minister Pedro Sánchez: "Your [Spanish] party does not have the votes to form a government and you draw conclusions from the [Catalan] election results that could turn against you easily". During her speech from the podium in Congress, she argued that "independentism is today the majority ideology in the Parliament of Catalonia". "Do we agree, Mr Sánchez?" she asked the Spanish PM. And she recalled that, while the Socialists say now that 'plural Catalonia' has spoken, "with a turnout of less than 58%", when the voter turnout was close to 80%, in the elections called under Article 155 in December 2017, "independentism was in the majority". And she questioned Sánchez directly: "When, in a while, sooner or later, this pro-independence majority comes back again, will you recognize that it is a victory for plural Catalonia? Or does it only happen when your party gets certain results?”.
Míriam Nogueras (Junts) in Congress: "You Socialists have only 42 MPs out of 135 in the Catalan Parliament, that is 31%, whereas here in Congress you have 34% of the total, worse in Catalonia than here, and here you have a majority by the skin of your teeth, specifically, thanks to our 7 MPs..." "Now if you mean with your triumphalist discourse that the sum of the Socialists, the PP and Vox has a majority in the Catalan Parliament, well, you're right. You can only combat independentism if you get together with the right and the far right".
Nogueras' words come nine days after Carles Puigdemont announced that he will present a candidacy to preside over the Generalitat of Catalonia and later reiterated that he will fight "to the end" to govern. However, from the Socialist ranks they have repeatedly closed the door to this possibility. Pedro Sánchez dismissed it "completely" and asked Puigdemont to "accept reality" while Salvador Illa reiterated it, claiming that going against the will of the people "is a mistake".
Nogueras recalls how Sánchez used "lawfare" and the "mud machine" against independentism
In what was also the first dialectical confrontation since Pedro Sánchez's five days of reflection, Míriam Nogueras asserted that the Spanish PM had "bought the theses" of Junts and recognized "the existence of lawfare and of a patriotic justice system, police force and media, and how they operate”. "We know all that by heart", she added. And she reproached the Spanish prime minister who, for years, carried out "abuse" with lawfare and with "mud flinging" when it "went against the entire independence movement and, in particular, against its leaders". And, after Sánchez said that he will not feed the "mud" machine, the Congressional spokesperson for Junts reminded him that he has "already done so". "You are covered in mud from bottom to top," she replied.
During her speech, Nogueras also regretted that Sánchez did not end his five days of reflection by taking any tangible measure that would ground his demand for democratic regeneration. At the outset, the Junts MP demanded the head of interior minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, given that keeping him is "incompatible with wanting to put an end to the abuses". Nogueras challenged the Spanish PM to demonstrate "credibility" with "facts and not with discourses", to explain "how to repair and stop the harm that is being done to so many people" and "refute" those who believe that "only power matters” to him. Nogueras reiterated that in Spain "there is no separation of powers and the judiciary and many media abuse their positions, lie and manipulate". "All the people affected by the [anti-independentist] repression are neither from his party nor his family and they have the bad luck of being Catalans in Spain and Spain will not defend them", she added.
Míriam Nogueras (Junts) in Congress: "You took part in the mud flinging machine when it went against the independence movement, and especially against its leaders. You said you won't feed the mud machine today, but you've already done so."
"You have never found five minutes to reflect on the serious democratic anomaly"
In her speech, Nogueras put on the table different cases of persecution linked to the independence movement. He spoke of the "mud machine" that removed Xavier Trias from the Barcelona mayoral office and allowed the Catalan Socialists (PSC) to govern the Barcelona city council "as a crutch" for Ada Colau's Comuns. In addition, she stated that Jaume Collboni is today the mayor of the Catalan capital thanks to the People's Party (PP), whom Sánchez "accuses of being behind the patriotic police who are harassing his family".
She also brought to the fore the cases of Catalan school teachers branded in the media as criminals because "they dared to speak in class about the referendum of October 1st", Catalan judges "identified and harmed in their professional careers after being accused of being in favour of the right to self-determination", politicians and activists "accused of terrorism", politicians "convicted with false evidence and false witnesses" and president Carles Puigdemont, turned into a "target" who is considered a valid target for "absolutely anything".
"You have never found five minutes to reflect on the serious democratic anomaly that all this represents", she told him, adding that "while all this was happening", the Catalan Socialists, led by Salvador Illa, Miquel Iceta and Josep Borrell, "demonstrated alongside the Spanish right and far right to call for a heavy hand against the independence movement".