The Popular Party leverages Junts' threat to break with the PSOE to ramp up pressure on Pedro Sánchez's Government, during a week of key decisions in Catalan independence and judicial appearances. Deputy Secretary Elías Bendodo has urged Carles Puigdemont's party to 'stand firm' against what he calls a corrupt Government. Sánchez, meanwhile, ignores the challenge and focuses his attacks on the PP's management in Valencia after the DANA floods.
Junts' leadership meets on Monday in Perpignan to decide on its relationship with the PSOE, after accusing the Government of failing agreements such as official status for Catalan in Europe, transfer of immigration powers, greater self-government and funding, as well as tougher rules against squatting. It will then consult its militants on a possible break in Congress. Carles Puigdemont has yet to benefit from the approved amnesty.
The PP, while doubting the threat's seriousness, uses it to attack Sánchez. At an event in Madrid, Elías Bendodo stated: “It is time to stand firm for real”. He added: “It's about time they realize they are supporting a corrupt Government that has also deceived them and played three-card monte with the promised amnesty”. Bendodo described the week as “horribilis” for Sánchez: the Junts meeting on Monday, Mariano Moreno's testimony as a witness in the Supreme Court on Wednesday, and the president's appearance in the Koldo case commission in the Senate on Thursday at 9:00 a.m.
Bendodo omitted mention of the first anniversary of the DANA floods, which caused 229 deaths in the Valencian Community and is commemorated on Wednesday with a State funeral in Valencia at 6:00 p.m., attended by Alberto Núñez Feijóo and Carlos Mazón. The latter was criticized at a Saturday demonstration for his management of the cold drop.
Sánchez, at a rally in León, avoided referencing Junts and attacked Feijóo and Abascal for backing Mazón: “Their support is indecent for the Valencians and the families of the DANA victims”. He denounced the PP's “incompetence and negligence” in crises like the DANA, fires in Castilla y León—where 100,000 hectares burned in León and 30% of firefighters were dismissed—and breast cancer screenings in Andalucía. He stated that “no one is at the wheel of the PP” and that the Government has transferred 300 billion euros more than in the Rajoy era, but the PP cuts public services.
The PP views Junts' threat as a “bluff”, but is open to a motion of censure with them, despite complications with Vox, which has voted jointly on occasions but rails against separatists. Bendodo quipped: “Enough with the evasions, let him tell us what flight he's taking to meet Puigdemont”. In the Koldo case commission, extended for six months, the PP hopes Sánchez “tells the truth” about the slush fund, though its utility has been scant according to analysts.