Catalan allies on brink of withdrawing support for Spanish government

By Joan Faus

BARCELONA (Reuters) -The leadership of Catalonia's regional party Junts agreed on Monday to withdraw its support from Spain's leftist government, further complicating its ability to pass legislation, a party source and local media said.

While the move, if approved this week by grassroots members, would not bring down the government, it would mean it could no longer lean on Junts' seven votes in the 350-member house.

Over the past two years, the party has provided its support on a case-by-case basis, usually in return for concessions from the government, which controls 146 seats and has relied on a variety of small regional parties to help push laws through.

Pro-independence Junts is due to hold a news conference later on Monday.

It remained unclear whether withdrawing support from the government would mean Junts would eventually back any potential motion of no-confidence against Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.

Such a move would involve joining forces with the conservative People's Party and far-right Vox, who fiercely oppose Catalonia's self-determination.

In a meeting in Perpignan in France, Catalonia's former leader and Junts' president Carles Puigdemont told the party leadership the Socialist-led executive had failed to uphold its promises and Junts could no longer support it, the source and several Spanish media said.

Puigdemont attempted to declare the northeastern region's independence from Madrid in 2017 before being deposed and going into self-imposed exile.

In November 2023, Junts lent its votes to make Sanchez prime minister in exchange for a blanket amnesty for officials involved in the failed secession bid.

However, Spain's Supreme Court has upheld arrest warrants for Puigdemont and several others charged with embezzlement, ruling that the amnesty law did not apply to them.

Junts' frustration over Puigdemont's case is compounded by conflicts such as the government's failure to pass a bill that would have devolved immigration enforcement to Catalan authorities or what Junts sees as insufficient lobbying to make Catalan an official language in the European Union.

(Writing by David Latona; Editing by Andrei Khalip and Alison Williams)