The scenario drawn by the opinion polls of a fragmentation of the Catalan Parliament after May 12th is bringing the possible shape of post-electoral pacts into the foreground. The Together for Catalonia (Junts) candidate, Carles Puigdemont, responded with absolute clarity this Thursday from Argelers to statements made by Salvador Illa, in which the Catalan Socialist (PSC) leader had showed himself willing to enter into talks with him on forming a government. "We will not make any agreement with Mr Illa", affirmed Puigdemont, at the same time as he urged the other parties to explain with the same clarity what post-election deals they are prepared to countenance. "No vote for the candidacy that I lead will serve to make Illa president, nor his project, nor his policies", he stated.
In a press conference called by the ACN news agency, Puigdemont quipped that until now Illa had not wanted to know anything about Junts or, in particular, about him, and he asserted that the last time they spoke with the Socialist leader on the subject was after the 2023 municipal elections, when he told them that the PSC would not make any deal with the People's Party (PP) to prevent Xavier Trias from being mayor of Barcelona, so the Socialist leader deserved "zero credibility". The head of the Junts list reiterated that he takes it for granted that the PSC candidate already has an agreement with the Comuns sphere, and that he will look to the Catalan Republican Left (ERC) to join a government of Catalan and Spanish leftists. For this reason, he challenged these parties to explain their projects clearly.
Together, with the most options to govern
In any case, Puigdemont predicted that in a scenario in which no party obtains an absolute majority on election night - as the polls predict - Junts has "much better options of achieving the presidency than the Socialist party". In this regard, the candidate recalled that, in the last legislature, Pere Aragonès governed with only 33 deputies, after being invested with the votes of Junts, just as in the previous legislature it was ERC who voted for the investiture of Quim Torra, of the Junts candidature. Therefore, in the event that there is no absolute majority "a government of Junts with ERC is much more likely", given that applying the same logic "there should not be great obstacles to work for the agreement the very next day".
On the other hand, in his opinion, if the PSC remained in first position after the elections and chose to attempt an investiture on the second ballot - when only a simple majority is required - it would be because it has the votes of the PP secured, which makes it "absolutely incompatible" for Junts to side with the Spanish government, as he has already repeatedly stated. "If the PSC respects the terms of the agreement to try to overcome the conflict between Catalonia and Spain" - the Junts-PSOE deal which enabled the current Spanish executive to take office - "it will not have an interest in making Illa president with the votes of the PP. I don't think it is necessary to negotiate anything", he warned in relation to the possibility of an abstention from the Socialists for his own investiture.
Given all of this, the candidate of the Junts+Puigdemont for Catalonia list affirmed that he sees a joint government with ERC much more likely than a tripartite one.
In a repeat election, Puigdemont will be back
The candidate stated that the party does not contemplate the possibility of a deadlock that forces a repeat election and placed this option as another element in the push to espanyolitzar - that is, to promote Spanish-oriented issues - in the Catalan election. In any case, he made it clear that if such a repetition occurs, the election will be held again and he will be able to fight it, moreover, "for the first time on equal terms with the other candidates". "I'm not afraid of a repeat election, I have many more advantages with an electoral repeat", he assured. "But I still think it would be bad news."