Catalan pro-independence party ERC has paused talks with PSOE to reinvest Pedro Sánchez as Spanish prime minister. For days, they'd been warning that the Court of Justice of the European Union's ruling on the immunity of their president, Oriol Junqueras, could affect the talks. This morning, Catalan vice-president Pere Aragonès called on the Spanish government to comply with the ruling; in the afternoon, party spokesperson Marta Vilalta turned things up a notch, announcing a pause in talks.
In front of the Catalan Parliament, surrounded by party leaders and deputies, Vilalta argued the party's arithmetic power in the Congress for Sánchez to return as prime minister, and warned they won't return to the negotiating table until PSOE reacts to the ruling and they reveal what position the state's legal service will take. The press conference followed a meeting this lunchtime of the party executive.
The party says it will fight "legally" and "politically" for the verdict to be followed. As such, they will ask the Supreme Court to void its verdicts and release Junqueras. They also want PSOE to show it has abandoned the "path of judicialisation" for the path of politics.
Shortly afterwards, acting deputy prime minister Carmen Calvo announced that the state's legal service is "carefully studying" the verdict. However, she asked ERC to not abandon the talks in the meantime.