Who wants to marry Sánchez?

Jordi Turull met with Pedro Sánchez at the Moncloa Palace for the first time on Tuesday , but it was the third time the secretary general of Junts had been there since the seven post-Convergent MPs propped up the government. In January of last year, with the ratification of the first anti-crisis decrees at stake, the negotiations took Turull to the Moncloa Palace alongside Míriam Nogueras and Albert Batet. Vice President María Jesús Montero, Félix Bolaños, and Santos Cerdán were on the other side of a table where a plate of ham was passed during a break in the evening meeting. From there came the agreement for the transfer of immigration powers to the Generalitat. “I didn't touch that folder, but it was taken out of the Geneva drawer.” Carles Puigdemont's party credited Cerdán. “Sometimes you find interlocutors with whom you can speak honestly,” Turull acknowledged. “He didn't throw in the towel.”

The same thing Cerdán united is what is causing the crisis between Sánchez and his partners today. The president has bought time with the parliamentary groups supporting him while waiting for José Luis Ábalos, Koldo García, and Cerdán to testify before the Supreme Court judge , but they reject the photo ops they previously disputed, and the tone "is rising," the government admits. Neither Junts nor ERC will be the first to abandon their majority, even if they leave messages in votes here and there, like the PNV .

Junts has opted not to rush and "gain its time," despite the fact that messages urging a breakup are resonating more among its members today. The fact that Turull and Nogueras were the first to appear in the Moncloa Palace recognizes them as a key partner at the worst possible time. The government's credibility is "zero," they say; dialogue with the ministers is complex, and pending agreements don't depend solely on Sánchez, so Puigdemont's party—quietly—is "on the clock."

ERC has also taken a "steep step." They are carefully studying all the UCO reports in case any move crosses their red line: that the plot points to the president or the PSOE. "As long as there is no checkmate for Sánchez, the game is on," they point out, in order to go as far as possible in their agreements with the government . After launching the Renfe subsidiary that Rodalies will manage in Catalonia, ERC now points to Montero as the main obstacle in the financing negotiations due to her dual role as head of the Treasury and candidate in Andalusia.

A wounded animal is "unpredictable," warn Junts and ERC about the president.

But the pro-independence movement's attempt to separate the Koldo case from its pacts is a pipe dream. The president has no control over the agenda or the calendar. The Constitutional Court's ruling on the amnesty will be mixed with the statements of those accused of corruption. He cannot offer any certainty about the scope of the plot, and the image of the Civil Guard entering Ferraz inflicts a wound that will fester endlessly. Junts knows this.

Sánchez is "very affected," and a wounded animal is "unpredictable," his associates warn. He is making unusual mistakes in his approach: the case is not an "anecdote," an expression as unfortunate as constantly referring to the PSOE as an organization, just as Cerdán and Ábalos are being investigated for criminal organization. He has even assumed a PP-Vox government if he calls elections.

Read also Puigdemont no longer wants to meet with Sánchez Isabel Garcia Pagan

Sánchez's insistence that he will finish his term is nothing more than a message that "no one believes," say the pro-independence parties. "We expect anything." He called elections in February 2019 for less. ERC and the PDECat (Catalan Democratic Party) overturned the budget in the midst of the independence trial, and Sánchez headed to the polls. Today, his chances of electoral survival are slim. He himself admits that confidence in himself is shaken, so, amid the socialist psychosis, he seeks to bolster his authority with figures like Salvador Illa.

The president's time in the Moncloa Palace is significant . Whether the PSC's power is sufficient to hold out, with or without the ballot box, is another matter. The victories of the Catalan Socialists are a guarantee, but they were insufficient to staunch the PSOE's bloodletting in 1996, amidst a storm of corruption linked to Felipe González's government. Who wants to marry Sánchez today? The current alliance is only sustained because a right-wing majority condemns the separatists to the wilderness and the PSOE to something else.