Those who know her do not forget the gesture of removing the Spanish flag from the podium of the Congress hall where her press conference was scheduled in February 2023. We are referring to Míriam Nogueras, the parliamentary spokesperson for Junts per Catalunya, the separatist formation led by Carles Puigdemont, the exiled fugitive who was president of the Generalitat. “It was too close, the European one represents me more,” replied the “vice-queen,” as she is called, to a journalist seeking explanations.
There would be much to discuss about Junts’ sympathies for Europe – the protagonist of the illegal referendum organized in October 2017 – in light of Russian interference in secession attempts (documented first by The New York Times) and the dangerous relations woven with Moscow. The Spanish judiciary, not without protagonism, is working on this point as well as on crimes related to terrorism, seeking to bypass the amnesty law that allowed, after laborious negotiations, the birth of Pedro Sánchez’s new government. At the conclusion of those negotiations, the socialist leader – now encouraged by the bright successes of the Spanish economy – also received decisive support from Nogueras’ group, a 43-year-old textile entrepreneur, elected as a deputy for the first time in 2016, married to a helicopter pilot, with two children, and spokesperson for Junts since 2021, where, as El País writes, she has gained “full trust” from Puigdemont.
As often happens in Spain – where the amnesty has encountered resistance even in the democratic public opinion and has been instrumentalized by the far-right Vox for violent demonstrations against the government – everything is very complicated. But what has made the situation incendiary is the recent decision of Junts’ MPs to vote against the law, which was deemed “biased.” A sensational about-face, also criticized by ERC (the party of the Catalan left), which aims to force Sánchez to make further concessions.
Unperturbed, Nogueras has argued that it was a choice made “in the interest of citizens.” In short, the Spanish flag has been moved even further away.