Catalan separatists break with Spanish Socialists, hobbling PM Sánchez

Citing a “lack of will” from the Socialists, separatist Junts’ party leader Carles Puigdemont said Sánchez had failed to carry out the promises made in 2023 when he persuaded Junts’ seven lawmakers in the Spanish parliament to back his bid to remain in power.

The break is dire for Sánchez, whose government has no hope of passing legislation without the support of Junts’ lawmakers. The prime minister has not been able to get a new budget approved since the start of this term and has instead governed with extensions of the 2022 budget and EU recovery cash.

Without the backing of Catalan separatist lawmakers, the Socialists have no way to secure the additional funds needed to comply with U.S. President Donald Trump’s demands Madrid increase its defense spending.

Puigdemont said the Socialists no longer “have the capacity to govern” and challenged Sánchez to explain how he intends to remain in power. But the exiled separatist leader appeared to reject teaming up with the center-right People’s Party and the far-right Vox group to back a censure motion to topple Sánchez outright.

In exchange for Junts’ crucial support in 2023, the prime minister’s party committed to passing an amnesty law benefiting hundreds of separatists and other measures. While many of those vows — among them, new rules allowing the use of Catalan in the Spanish parliament — have been fulfilled, others are pending.

The Spanish parliament passed the promised amnesty bill last year, but its full application has since been halted by the courts. Spain’s Supreme Court has specifically blocked Puigdemont — who fled Spain following the failed 2017 Catalan independence referendum and has since lived in exile in Waterloo, Belgium — from benefiting from the law, citing pending embezzlement charges.

Puigdemont also cited the Socialists’ inability to get Catalan recognized as an official EU language as a reason for the break in relations. Spanish diplomats have spent the past two years lobbying counterparts in Brussels and national capitals and recently persuaded Germany to back the proposal. But numerous countries remain opposed to the idea, arguing the move would cost the EU millions of euros in new translation and interpretation fees and embolden Breton, Corsican or Russian-speaking minorities to seek similar recognition.

The separatist leader added that the Sánchez government’s reluctance to give Catalonia jurisdiction over immigration within that region proved that although there might be “personal trust” between the Socialists and Junts’ representatives, “political trust” was lacking.

Following Puigdemont’s speech, Science and Universities Minister Diana Morant expressed doubts “Junts’ electorate voted in favor of letting Vox or the People’s Party govern” and said the Catalan separatists needed to “choose whether they want Spain to represent progress or regression.”