It is difficult to find a categorical statement, in public, from members of the PP leadership, on whether or not they refuse to dialogue with Junts, after the general elections of 23-J. On the formation led by Puigdemont, the popular have said they are willing to "talk" with other parties within the framework of the Constitution, that their "approach is not precisely" in the lines of the Catalan separatists and it has been affirmed that any negotiation "would be based on constitutional agreements". And this Thursday, the general coordinator of the PP, Elías Bendodo, again responded on whether establishing talks with Junts was ruled out or not. "They were outside the Constitution, but part of the result of the electoral table and the investiture will depend on them, therefore it will depend on their attitude. We have not in principle established such contact. But we have to have the ability to talk to everyone. With everyone. Another thing then is to reach agreements with everyone, "Bendodo explained in an interview on RNE. Words like "in principle" or "it will depend on his attitude" opened a crack that has been criticized this Friday, a day later, by the secretary general of the ultras, Ignacio Garriga. "Vox will never be in an equation where the separatists are," Garriga has also censored in RNE.
The spiral of statements by PP leaders on Junts has been entangled since the shock experienced in the PP by the result at the polls of 23-J, until this Friday, during the inauguration of the already president of Aragon, the popular Jorge Azcón. The event was attended on behalf of the national leadership Carmen Fúnez, deputy secretary of Social Policies of the PP. "It is an issue that right now is not on the table," said the popular leader. Again, Funez attempts a circumlocution by saying "right now." Who has shown his frontal opposition to any conversation with Junts has been the president of the Catalan PP, Alejandro Fernández, who has also accompanied Azcón in Zaragoza. "I've always stood for the same thing. Whoever is outside the Constitution is Junts and is [Carles] Puigdemont, and is a fugitive from justice and, consequently, is outside any type of negotiation. That is my position and so I have maintained it firmly from minute one, "said Fernández, who is not part of the national leadership.
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The lack of specificity of the PP on Junts thus clouds the relationship with Vox, channeled after the leader of the ultras, Santiago Abascal, offered last Sunday his 33 deputies to vote in favor of the investiture of Alberto Núñez Feijóo. The two also met shortly after the July 23 general election. But those 33 supports are not enough for the head of the PP to be invested, not even adding to its 137 seats the deputy of UPN and the possible yes of the Canary Coalition. In that scenario, the 172 votes in favor of Feijóo would meet with 178 votes against. And as the positions move between the different forces of the parliamentary arc at the moment, Junts has in its hand to increase or not the votes in favor of Feijóo or the acting president, Pedro Sánchez. After Funez and Fernández have attended the media from Zaragoza, the elected deputy of the PP Rafael Hernando, has written on Twitter that the block of the "center right has 184 seats, the left plus the ultra-left 166", including Junts in that equation, also the PNV.
To the uncertainty about who will manage to gather a more comfortable majority for the future round of contacts with the King, doubts are added about the composition of the Bureau of Congress – and therefore, the president of the lower house – whose vote will take place on the 17th, during the day of constitution of the Cortes. Vox wants a seat at the Table, and that seat will depend on the predisposition of the PP, practically guaranteed after the gift of the 33 yeses of Abascal. But what Vox flatly rejects is a hypothetical understanding between popular and Junts, either for the Bureau or for the Government. For Garriga, the only thing that needs to be discussed with the Catalan separatists is that "they communicate the day and time at which [Carles] Puigdemont will arrive so that the security forces and bodies of the State, our judicial system, can come, arrest him and put him in prison."
The achievement of statements by leaders of the PP on Junts has happened as follows:
July 29. Pedro Rollán, Deputy Secretary of Local Policy. Rollán opened the door to "talking" with Puigdemont's party "within the Constitution." Asked by EL PAÍS about the words of Rollán, sources of the PP leadership later endorsed his statements and assured that there was "no novelty" in that approach because his "veto is always and will be to Bildu" and, "with the others, the limit is the Constitution".
July 31. Cuca Gamarra, Secretary General. After the media stir of Rollán's words, Gamarra spoke about that possible dialogue with Junts. "[That possibility] has not been and is not on the table. We are a serious, predictable and predictable party. That means that the issues that some want to talk about are not and will never be part of what the PP has approaches to when addressing the future of our country. We have a way of understanding politics that goes through the constitutional framework. Therefore, our approach is not precisely in those lines, but in all the opposites. "
August 9. Cuca Gamarra, Secretary General. After the confirmation that the PP had won a seat to the PSOE in Madrid thanks to the external vote, which implied for the Socialists to achieve the yes of Junts and not only their abstention for the investiture of Sánchez, Gamarra was less categorical this Wednesday, and only responded that the pacts reached by the Popular Party "would be based on constitutional agreements".
August 10. Elías Bendodo, general coordinator. On the possibility of dialogue with Junts, Bendodo said during an interview with RNE: "They themselves were the ones who were outside the Constitution, but part of the result of the electoral table and the investiture will depend on them, therefore it will depend on their attitude. In principle, we have not established that contact, no. But we have to have the ability to talk to everyone. With everyone. Another thing then is to reach agreements with everyone, that is not. One thing is to talk to everyone and another thing is to swallow with everything, and there the PP is not willing. "
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