The general secretary of Junts, Jordi Turull, has warned the Government that there is still “time” to “rectify” and negotiate a new housing decree, but that in the event that the president, Pedro Sánchez, decides to call elections, they are “prepared” in their formation. Turull has assured that there have been no new contacts with the Government after yesterday Puigdemont's people overturned the two housing decrees that were voted on in Congress, but that Junts has provided a proposal and is willing to continue negotiating.
“At Junts we are focused on solutions,” said Turull before participating in the National Council of the JNC, in Riudarenes (Girona), recalling that the party yesterday delivered to the Executive an alternative to negotiate a new decree. “If what you want to do is electoralism at the expense of the most vulnerable, it is easy to end up calling elections,” he addressed Sánchez. "We are not going to engage in demagoguery or base ourselves on empty platitudes. The entire social burden cannot be discharged at the expense of the middle and working class."
Turull, however, has told the Government that there is still “time” to “rectify.” Thus, he has emphasized that the Executive knows what its demands are. “Proposals to go well, not to look good,” he reproached. And he has pointed out that, despite the media rejection of his position by some sectors, his refusal yesterday was to work on a better solution to the housing problem in Spain and Catalonia. “We have noted the majority sentiment of Catalan citizens, who have told us that it was time for us to maintain this position.”
”But if there is a desire to solve this problem and turn around policies that have failed, we have time,” insisted the general secretary of Junts, who once again recalled that the Government has “a proposal on the table.” For the moment, there have been no new contacts between Carles Puigdemont's party and the Executive, as Turull has admitted, after the extraordinary plenary session that was held yesterday in Congress.
But he has continued to defend the same position that the JxCat spokesperson in Madrid, Miriam Nogueras, maintained yesterday: “We have to give legal certainty to those who can expand the offer of the rental market,” Turull stressed. "If they want to go against vulture funds, go ahead. But we cannot protect the vulnerable at the expense of small landowners," he added.
“If we had approved yesterday's decrees, I would be here today apologizing to the youth,” Turull said. In his view, the two decrees that the Government intended to approve yesterday in Congress - which the Junts executive decided on Thursday night to vote against - sent the following messages: "Tenant, you do not need to pay the rent because there is a whole system that will protect you; owner, do not buy an apartment and rent it out because it will be your nightmare; and, finally, young people, you do not need to look for an apartment because there will not be one."
Given the possibility that the President of the Government decided to call elections, Junts assures that they are “prepared.” “We have a program and a candidate, Miriam Nogueras,” he concluded. Turull has assured that in the PSOE they are “unpredictable”: “The PSOE project is called PSOE, and everything they do will be thinking about the benefit of the party.”
Regarding the return of Puigdemont and his influence on the hypothetical electoral call, the general secretary of JxCat has said that until they see it they will not believe it. “We have already seen that justice and 'the Toga Nostra' are capable of doing anything,” he stated. Even so, he admitted that for Junts and for Catalonia as a whole it will be an important milestone: “President Puigdemont's leadership will be here.” “Until now we have had to play with one hand tied behind our back,” he added.
