Salvador Illa will meet with Carles Puigdemont tomorrow in Brussels: "Now it's time."

BarcelonaSalvador Illa will meet with Carles Puigdemont in Brussels this Tuesday. It is the first meeting between the two since the Socialist leader arrived at the Palau de la Generalitat, just over a year ago. Salvador Illa had stated in recent months that he intended to meet with the Junts leader, but on his two trips to Brussels so far, this meeting has not taken place. Finally, the meeting will be held this Tuesday at the headquarters of the Delegation of the Generalitat to the European Union, located in Brussels, at 4:15 p.m., according to the Government's statement this morning. "I said I would meet with President Puigdemont when it was time, and now it's time," Illa explained in an interview on Catalunya Ràdio. "I'm doing it to send a message: that dialogue is the engine of democracy," he added.

The meeting comes with the amnesty law still pending for the former president of the Generalitat. In fact, on Friday, Salvador Illa once again demanded that the judiciary enforce the rule agreed upon by the Spanish government with Junts and ERC. The president expressed confidence that the amnesty will be extended to everyone throughout this political year, including the Junts leader, who has requested, as a precautionary measure, that his arrest warrant be lifted. "The amnesty is constitutional," Isla insisted. In this regard, he once again defended this law: "It was a difficult and courageous decision on the part of those of us who made it, but it was a positive one." "The sooner it is applied diligently and effectively, the better off we will all be," he added. Precisely because of the Constitutional Court's endorsement of the amnesty, the PSC believes that now is the right time for the meeting, which, despite the exceptional circumstances, is framed within "institutional normality."

The Spanish government sees the meeting as a "step towards normalization, a recognition," according to sources from Moncloa, who are not considering a meeting between Puigdemont and Pedro Sánchez for now. The Spanish president himself, in an interview on TVE on Monday night, endorsed the meeting: "It is a decision consistent with coexistence and dialogue, and from a political point of view, it seems correct to me." "When one looks forward as Catalan society does, what we cannot do is look back," added Sánchez, who once again called for overcoming "the years of confrontation and political conflict."

The image of Salvador Illa in Brussels with Carles Puigdemont was one of those requested by Junts. The party complained that the president excluded Puigdemont from the round of meetings he held a few months ago with all the former presidents of the Generalitat. At the time, the Catalan government justified this by saying that Puigdemont was still an active political leader. "I would have liked the meeting to have taken place in this room, in the Virgen de Montserrat hall [of the Palace of the Generalitat]. I would have liked to have done it here and many months ago. Since it couldn't be, we're doing it now," he stated. According to the secretary general of Junts, Jordi Turull, the meeting was requested by Salvador Illa himself. "It's coming too late," Turull lamented in statements to RAC1. "Out of institutional respect, it will take place," he added, although he assured that his party had stopped requesting this meeting.

Budgets and financing

The meeting between Isla and Puigdemont comes after Junts has already closed the door on negotiating the next Catalan budget. The members have not commented on the negotiation of the state accounts, and although sources at Moncloa demarcate one from the other, the meeting does "help." For now, according to Illa, he has not yet begun talks with the political groups in Catalonia, primarily with his two investiture partners, ERC and Comuns. "I will do everything in my power; the scenario I envision is for there to be a budget," he stated. Progress on the new financing model is the main condition that ERC sets for discussing the accounts. Isla insisted that his government will comply with the investiture agreement and assured that there will be "news" on the specifics of this new model in the "coming weeks and months."

ERC will present the law to the ATC next week.

Specifically, this Monday, ERC leader Oriol Junqueras once again demanded progress on this matter and asked both Isla and Puigdemont to "work" on this issue at Tuesday's meeting. Furthermore, Junqueras announced, in an interview with Ser Catalunya, that they will finally present the bill next Monday, which should provide legal protection for the Catalan Tax Agency to collect taxes. The Republicans were negotiating the law with the Socialists to present it jointly, but the talks in July revealed the remaining distance between the two parties. Now, ERC has decided to present the bill while awaiting the PSOE's response.

"They don't perceive the immense importance of Catalonia collecting its taxes," Junqueras lamented at a press conference following the party's first executive meeting on Monday. The Republican leader has warned the Socialists that without this law, they will not sit down to negotiate the accounts, but not only: "Financing model and collection capacity." In this regard, Junqueras also demanded that the State provide the resources to implement the new singular financing model.

For its part, the Commons requested a follow-up meeting this Monday regarding the investiture pact and the credit supplement agreements to "put down in black and white the commitments that have not been met." The Commons coordinator, Candela López, has warned that they will not sit down to negotiate the Generalitat's budget until issues such as the creation of the housing law inspectorate are met.

Commuter trains, airport, and official Catalan.

Aside from funding, ERC is also demanding steps in the transfer of the commuter train service. Negotiations that Isla has assured are going "very well." Given the railway chaos that often plagues the commuter train network, the president defended this transfer as a means of improving its management and warned: "If at any time we have to make decisive decisions, we will." Regarding the change in governance of El Prat Airport, also demanded by ERC, Illa declined to provide details and asked for "time" to comply with this point of the investiture agreement.

The official status of Catalan in the European Union is another issue that has been dragging on for months, after Junts agreed to it in support of Sánchez's investiture. The debate was postponed seven times, but Illa asserted that it is an issue that "is close." "We're talking more about months than years. I would like it to happen as soon as possible," he added, before attacking the PP for "blocking" this official status. "If the phone hadn't been picked up to say 'don't do it,' it would have been done by now," he lamented.