Antoni Bassas' analysis: 'Isla, from Lanzarote to Brussels to see Puigdemont'

The Ara Videos team is happy to welcome you back at the start of this season, which has begun with news: Tomorrow afternoon, Presidents Isla and Puigdemont will meet in Brussels.The Presidency of the Generalitat announced this at around 8:00 a.m.: the meeting will be held tomorrow, Tuesday, at the headquarters of the Delegation of the Generalitat to the European Union in Brussels at 4:30 p.m.

Junts had repeatedly requested this interview. Puigdemont and Turull had even said that, if "judicial amnesty" wasn't applied, Pedro Sánchez should at least apply a "political amnesty"; that is, that the Spanish government should normalize dialogue with the president who had been pardoned but was still forced to remain in exile. This demand from Junts became even stronger when Isla met with the former presidents, including Pujol. But he didn't invite Puigdemont. Until now. Why now? Isla explained it to Ricard Ustrell this morning:

"I said I would meet with President Puigdemont when the time came, and I think it's now. [...] Well, to send a message: that in a democracy, dialogue is the first driving force. I'm going for that. I'll also go to the exhibition on the millennium of Montserrat that the European Parliament is holding, and I'll meet with the Catalan government delegation. I'll meet with everyone; former presidents of the Generalitat. I was planning to meet with him, and I'll do it tomorrow. I took the initiative, but President Puigdemont has also agreed, and we'll do it tomorrow.

But do you have any ideas?

I'll tell him this.

The difference between doing so now and not doing so a year ago is due to the fact that the amnesty takes time to be applied.

I think now is the time to do this. Amnesty is constitutional. What would I have liked? That these meetings could have taken place in this room, where you're interviewing me. This room, the Our Lady of Montserrat Room, where there's an image of Our Lady of Montserrat, is where I receive visitors. I would have liked to be able to do it here."

Let's see, Why now? Because it suits Sánchez. Junts noted this morning that Isla visited Sánchez in Lanzarote this summer, and they surely agreed to meet there. Sánchez depends on Junts; Isla doesn't. He depends on them for budgets, but above all, to pass laws. An air of the end of the term hangs over the Spanish government, and if the budget is not approved, it will be even more evident. This meeting, then, is in Sánchez's best interest. We have said here that Isla is a soldier for Sánchez, a person of his utmost confidence, to the point that, during the Cerdán case, Illa was mentioned as a candidate to replace Sánchez, and Isla denied this to his advisors. And the meeting is already a good thing for Isla, because it contributes to the policy of normalizing détente that permeates her presidency.

It will be an institutional meeting, that is, almost a courtesy meeting, as with the other former presidents, marked from the outset by Puigdemont's absolute distrust of Isla and the PSC, given the episode of Trias's mayoralty being thwarted by the PSC-PP pact.

The fact that they're meeting is good news, and what Isla says is true: a good way to address the Spanish political turmoil is a meeting with someone as demonized as Puigdemont.

Good morning.