Aragonès to promote the Agreement on Amnesty and Self-Determination before convening the dialogue table

The new president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, who will take office today, has announced that he will promote the Agreement on Amnesty and Self-Determination, provided for in the government agreement with JxCat, before convening the dialogue table between governments. "Our will is to start this negotiating table as soon as possible, and if it is before the summer better, but before I want to launch the national agreement for self-determination and amnesty", he revealed in an interview with RAC1. Aragonès has justified it by the need to arrive at the table of dialogue with the maximum possible consensus. "The idea is to share proposals with parties and organisations to show that behind our demands there is a mobilised civil society", he said.

The president-elect, who explained that he has exchanged some messages with the Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez, after being invested, has also revealed that he plans to hold a conversation with the socialist leader this week and that he wants to meet before the second meeting of the dialogue table. "It would be logical for us to meet before convening the negotiating table", he said. In this sense, he said that the European funds to deal with the pandemic and the resolution of the political conflict are the two central axes on which his conversation with Sánchez will pivot.

Aragonès has made it clear that he rejects a consultation on a new Statute after speculation that the Spanish government could put on the table a return to the 2006 text that was cut. "The referendum has to include the option of independence", he warned. In spite of remarking that ERC does not renounce to the unilateral way to achieve independence, the head of the executive has remembered that the fight with the State is unequal. "The State has the tools to be unilateral. We need to strengthen our position internationally and internally to be stronger," he said before concluding that "it is not so much what you want to do, but what you can do now and how you have to prepare for it". As he did during the investiture debate, Aragonès has returned to claim the Scottish way: "The State has to dare to win a referendum on independence with an alternative project". Just today the Consell per la República has demanded the Government not to renounce to any of the "democratic and peaceful ways to achieve" independence and not to "limit the strategy only to a negotiation with the Spanish State, which probably will not guarantee Catalonia's right to self-determination".

Aragonès, who has also explained that the expresidentCarles Puigdemont congratulated him after becoming the new president, has revealed that he plans to travel to Waterloo in the coming weeks to address the political situation. On the ascendancy that Oriol Junqueras may have on him, he has refuted that he will not have to "kill the father" because they share "the same vision" and that their roles will be "complementary", and he has clearly separated the Government from the party. As for the composition of the new Government, the president has not wanted to specify which will be the new ministersand has announced that they will be made public this Tuesday. He has advanced that his Government will have a spokeswoman, who will be a woman but will not be a minister, has been the case until now. Likewise, he stated that in 2021 there must be "more resources for the social rescue plan and economic recovery" if new budgets are not approved this year.

Spanish Government asks Aragonès for a "vision of state" to "reduce political tension"

The Minister of Justice, Juan Carlos Campo, has "congratulated" Pere Aragonès for taking office as presidentof the Generalitat, and has asked him to have a "vision of state" so that its management "allows to lower the political tension, which has lasted too many years", and to be able to solve "the problems of Spain". Campo wanted to remind the 132 president of the Generalitat that "in democracy, desires are articulated through the legal system" and said that it is up to him as minister to "appeal to the constitutional order" because coexistence is achieved "only" within the framework of the "law".

Regarding the pardons, he said that "it would be irresponsible to make a pronouncement" on his part, "because we must wait for the reports of the Supreme Court". He wanted to emphasise that the files are for each of the prisoners "and have their own life", and has asked for "serenity" in a process that is regulated. Once he has the reports of the Supreme, he said, he will raise "the proposal to the Council of Ministers", where "there will be a debate" and "the position of the Spanish government" will become clear. In any case, "they are instruments provided for in the law and therefore we must see them naturally, whether favorable or unfavorable; we should not be afraid of the instruments that are provided for in the law", he remarked.