Protestors with banners depicting Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and former Catalan regional president Carles Puigdemont during a demonstration called by judges and prosecutors against proposed legislative reforms of judicial careers, on June 28, 2025.
Thomas Coex / AFP
The Spanish Socialists are trying to hack the reform of the EU electoral law that would leave separatist parties out of the European Parliament.
The president of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Salvador Illa, will travel to Brussels tomorrow, September 2nd, to meet face-to-face for the first time with former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, a fugitive from Spanish justice since 2017. The meeting will take place at the Catalan delegation to the European Union and will be held behind closed doors, without the presence of other representatives from their parties.
The official reason for Illa’s visit to Brussels is to inaugurate an exhibition on the millennium of the Montserrat abbey in one of the halls of the European Parliament. However, the real significance of the meeting lies in the fact that the Socialist official is aware that Puigdemont’s support is crucial for the stability of Pedro Sánchez’s government and, in particular, for the approval of the upcoming General State Budgets.
Puigdemont had been demanding a direct meeting with Illa for more than a year. The current president had held meetings with all his predecessors, including Jordi Pujol and Artur Mas, but had always left out the fugitive independence leader. That exclusion fueled pressure from Junts, which demanded an unequivocal gesture of political recognition following the approval of the amnesty law, still insufficient to allow the former president to return to Spain, where he remains subject to judicial proceedings for embezzlement.
The meeting between Illa and Puigdemont also coincides with another front opening in the European arena. Sánchez’s government is trying to prevent parts of the reform of the EU electoral law that would leave separatist parties out of the European Parliament. Spain is the only country that has not ratified Council Decision 2018/994, which sets a minimum threshold of between 2% and 5% to gain access to EP.
In recent days, Socialist (PSOE) MEPs have submitted amendments to shield parties such as ERC, Junts, the PNV, or the BNG —all regional parties in Spain— arguing that they represent “national and linguistic minorities.” If this clause were to succeed, Sánchez’s separatist allies would be spared from a rule that, applied at its maximum level, would leave them without representation in Europe, dramatically reshaping the balance of power at both national and European levels.
The government’s strategy reveals the PSOE’s double dependency on separatist parties: in Congress, where it needs their votes to approve the budget, and in Brussels, where it seeks to guarantee its political continuity. In both arenas, Sánchez once again bows to the demands of his allies, who are fully aware that their support is indispensable for keeping the legislature alive.
Javier Villamor is a Spanish journalist and analyst. Based in Brussels, he covers NATO and EU affairs at europeanconservative.com. Javier has over 17 years of experience in international politics, defense, and security. He also works as a consultant providing strategic insights into global affairs and geopolitical dynamics.
