Sánchez and Aragonès call on each other to resume dialogue

MadridThe formation of Government in Catalonia is still in its negotiation phase, but on Tuesday it seemed that Pedro Sánchez and Pere Aragonès acted as if it was already done. Sánchez spoke from the Spanish Parliament in response to ERC spokesperson Gabriel Rufián and the Aragonès from the presentation of the future prisons in Barcelona's Zona Franca; they summoned each other to resume the dialogue on the conflict between Catalonia and the State. "We hope to set in motion the Bilateral Commission of negotiation between the Spanish government and the Generalitat", said the leader of the Spanish executive, who did not make it clear whether he was referring to the negotiating table agreed with ERC as a result of his endorsement to the investiture or to the Bilateral Commission in which the two administrations deal with sectorial questions.

Aragonès picked up the gauntlet from Barcelona and urged Sánchez to convene the political negotiating table "as soon as possible", since he has pointed out that it is also a bilateral body like the others specialising in economic, social or environmental areas. In fact, there have already been meetings relating to these areas in recent weeks, according to ERC sources. Aragonès is eager to start the legislature with the formation of Government and has shown hope that the talks with JxCat and the CUP will come to fruition. In this sense, he has shown his confidence in the negotiating teams.

The dialogue table is stranded since the pandemic broke out and the Catalan legislature was doomed to new elections after former President Quim Torra announced that he would call new elections. The appeals on one side and the other to further the dialogue have not materialised and the only meeting that was held barely served to convene another meeting. This Wednesday Sánchez has returned to refer to them as a result of an intervention by Rufian, who has decided to raise the tone in response to PSOE's cosying up to Ciudadanos in the Spanish parliament. Rufián warned that only with the support of ERC's MPs can the vice president Carmen Calvo approve a law of democratic memory and the minister María Jesús Montero measures of greater fiscal progressivity. Sánchez has replied that his cabinet works to improve Spanish democracy and, among other things, to "channel conflicts like the Catalan one through democratic and legal channels"

Campo uses Serret's return to deny repression

The Minister of Justice, Juan Carlos Campo, used Serret's return from exile to deny that Spain is a "repressive" state. "She has returned, has been released and has become a member of the Catalan Parliament," the minister described in response to CUP deputy Albert Botran, who has followed Rufián's lead. The former councillor and MEP Clara Ponsatí tweeted that it was predictable that this was the reaction of the Spanish government: "We could see it coming".

Botran recalled Sánchez's promise of "de-judicialization" when he acceded to the presidency and pointed out that the approval of the amnesty law registered this Tuesday in the Spanish Parliament could be a "sincere" step in this direction. Aware of the few prospects of success of the initiative, Botran has reproached the lack of "political will" to reverse the situation of repression by the paralysis, he said, of the reform of sedition and pardons.

"Don't talk to me about political prisoners because I won't allow it," Campo responded, warning Botran that "persecution mania contaminates your discourse. The minister has recommended Botran read the pardon law to justify that the process is long. He argued that in order to reform the Penal Code, it is necessary to "fine-tune the regulatory texts". "Where you see repression, I see rule of law; where you see an Independence bid, I see Catalans who want to turn the page," Campo concluded. Like Sánchez, the Minister of Justice has also prescribed dialogue within the constitutional framework, but first there must be a new government in Catalonia.