Spain’s minority government on Tuesday downplayed the loss of support of a Catalan separatist party which has heightened doubts about the fragile leftist coalition’s survival.
Junts per Catalunya’s seven MPs proved decisive when their votes allowed Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to serve another term after inconclusive 2023 elections produced a hung parliament.
The party’s exiled figurehead Carles Puigdemont, Spain’s most-wanted fugitive, announced on Monday it was withdrawing backing for the government, which struggles to pass legislation.
Puigdemont warned the move would mean the government will “not have a budget, nor the capacity to govern”.
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But government spokeswoman Pilar Alegría told a press conference that “all relationships have their ups and downs” and that they would continue to work with “dialogue and an outstretched hand”.
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The pro-business Junts believes the Socialists have not kept their promises and say they had not offered blanket support for the leftist coalition’s programme.
The government had already been at loggerheads with Junts in other parliamentary votes and negotiated its support on a case-by-case basis.
A key sticking point is an amnesty law for those prosecuted in the northeastern Catalonia region’s failed 2017 secession bid, Spain’s worst political crisis in decades.
Although parliament approved the amnesty law last year, it does not apply to Puigdemont because he faces embezzlement charges that do not come under its scope, preventing his return to Spain.
Alegría said the government was fulfilling agreements with Junts that were “solely and exclusively” in its hands and was “working” on those that depended on others.
