Junts per Catalunya has stepped up its pressure on Spain's minority government by calling on Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to stand aside and allow Congress to choose another leader, while still refusing to back a formal motion of no confidence. The move matters in Catalonia because Junts holds key votes in Madrid, and its shifting position affects whether agreements on legislation and commitments involving Catalan interests can still move through parliament.

The latest turn came on Tuesday 24 June, when Junts spokesperson Míriam Nogueras told Sánchez in the Congreso de los Diputados, Spain's lower house of parliament, to "step aside" so the chamber could choose someone else with the capacity to "comply with Catalonia and all Catalans", according to reporting by El Confidencial and El País.

For Catalan voters, the practical effect is immediate: Junts is signalling that it no longer sees itself as tied to the parliamentary bloc that backed Sánchez's investiture, making support for future government votes less predictable. That matters for residents, commuters and businesses because parliamentary instability can stall measures that depend on cross-party backing in Madrid.

What Junts is doing now

According to Javier Casqueiro's reporting in El País on 25 June, Junts says it no longer feels bound to any political bloc after concluding that commitments agreed with Sánchez had not all been met. In recent months, the party has said the investiture majority was broken, called for Sánchez to face a confidence question, demanded early elections and then proposed replacing him without necessarily ending the legislature.

"Voting the same way as PP and Vox is not voting together."

That is how Junts has defended a line that has seen it coincide with the conservative PP and far-right Vox in some votes, while insisting it is pursuing its own strategy, according to El País.

On the same day, 24 June, Nogueras argued that Sánchez no longer had either the majority or the legitimacy to remain in office, and described the situation as unsustainable, according to El Confidencial. Junts later clarified, as reported by El País on 25 June, that any replacement would not necessarily have to come from the PSOE and could be an independent figure if parliament approved it.

Why 16 June and 24 June matter

The party's latest move followed an earlier attempt to force the issue of elections in parliament. On Monday 16 June, the Mesa del Congreso, the governing bureau of the lower house, rejected amendments from Junts and the PP that sought to make Congress call on the government to bring forward a general election, according to RTVE.

RTVE reported on 16 June that the Mesa, where PSOE and Sumar hold a majority, ruled that those amendments entered powers constitutionally reserved to the prime minister under Article 112 of the Spanish Constitution, as cited in the report. The proposed vote would not in any case have been legally binding, RTVE said.

  • 16 June: the Mesa del Congreso rejected Junts and PP amendments seeking a parliamentary call for early elections, according to RTVE.
  • 24 June: Míriam Nogueras urged Sánchez to step aside and let parliament choose another leader, according to El Confidencial.
  • 25 June: El País reported that Junts described this as a variable strategy and said it did not feel tied to any bloc.

For readers in Catalonia, this means the party is pressing two ideas at once: that the current parliamentary arrangement is exhausted, and that it does not want to be seen as simply helping the Spanish right into office.

What this means for Catalan voters

  • Junts is no longer presenting itself as a reliable partner of Sánchez's investiture majority.
  • The party is asking for a political replacement in Madrid without committing to a no-confidence route.
  • Its votes in the Congreso de los Diputados remain pivotal, so the passage of future measures depends on negotiations that are now more uncertain.
  • Junts says its shift is tied to what it sees as unfulfilled commitments to Catalonia, as reported by El País.

Pressure from Madrid and from Catalan politics

Junts has been hardening its line for weeks. On 23 May, El País reported that the party had moved into what it called an end-of-legislature phase as it increased attacks on the government while also managing internal strains.

At the same time, debate over the party's direction has widened as new polling and analysis have questioned its support base and strategic coherence. Several of the verified sources point to internal concern about electoral decline and competition in Catalan politics, although the supplied primary text here does not provide a full set of figures from those polls.

"Step aside, Mr Sánchez, and let this Parliament put in someone who has the capacity to comply with Catalonia and all Catalans."

That quote, attributed by El País to Nogueras in Congress, captures the party's present line: it wants a break with Sánchez's leadership, but not a straightforward alignment with a single alternative bloc.

The clearest known fact is that Junts has moved, within little more than a week, from backing parliamentary pressure for early elections on 16 June to urging Sánchez's replacement on 24 June, while maintaining that matching the votes of PP and Vox does not mean acting jointly with them.

Reported by Source Text Link, Javier Casqueiro, Marisol Hernández;Ana Belén Ramos;José Ramón Pérez, Félix Donate Mazcuñán, Silvia Quílez Iglesias, Marc Rovira, M. K., elmundo.es, Enric Company, Ferran Espada, Marc Rovira, Bernat Coll, Milagros Pérez Oliva, Joan Serra,Laura Pons, Albert Aragonès, Oriol Bartomeus, Daniel Romaní, Aleix Moldes, RTVE.es, Sandra Vicente, lavanguardia.com, russpain.com.