"I am not in a condition to serve my country and my city with the same energy and intensity as I have done so far". With this sentence, Elsa Artadi has said goodbye to active politics, a personal decision after which she has withdrawn from the race to become Barcelona's mayor, but also her responsibilities in Parliament and in the party. "It is not a political decision," she said in an appearance at noon from the city hall, during which she broke into tears and her voice quivered. In front of Speaker Laura Borràs and all JxCat city councillors, Artadi assured "the country, the city and this party deserves people in the front line to be at full strength". "We all reach a time to say enough is enough and this is mine. I can't do it anymore. It is the right decision and the one I can take being honest," she concluded.

Keeping the path of dialogue alive is one of the main objectives of Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) – and, therefore, President Pere Aragonès – in this term. Given two years to prove the negotiation with the State bares fruits by the pro-independence majority that sustains the Government, the Catalan president has avoided holding the Spanish president responsible for former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont's arrest in Sardinia on Friday, contrary to the latter's claims. "I will not go into speculating whether the Spanish government was in the know, but I have no evidence that it was the case," he said in an interview with La 2 and Radio 4, in which he has made clear that blame for Puigdemont's situation is the Spanish judicial apparatus.

The crisis between Together for Catalonia (JxCat) and Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) continues very much alive the day after the dialogue table. JxCat spokeswoman Elsa Artadi has affirmed in declarations to Ràdio 4 that at yesterday's meeting president Aragonès only represented his own party. "Yesterday it was a minority of the pro-independence movement who was at the table", Artadi said whens she was asked whether Aragonès, as president, represented all Catalans. She added that "he represents ERC". The crisis between the two parties started when the president, Pere Aragonès, left JxCat out of the dialogue table because they refused to name delegates who were also cabinet members, as he had requested. The meeting between governments is already history –the negotiation is not, it has only just restarted– but JxCat continues piling the pressure on, despite the fact that their Government ministers gave the green light to the agreement that named only ERC ministers as delegates at the negotiating table.

Pedro Sánchez lack of clarity on whether or not he will attend the dialogue table and, therefore, on whether he will show whether he takes it seriously or not, is becoming a source of discomfort for ERC. There are ten days left before the meeting and the Spanish president continues without publicly clarifying whether he will be in Barcelona. This is why ERC has decided to take a step further in the pressure strategy and has warned Sánchez that if he does not decisively back this negotiating tool, ERC will rethink the predisposition they have shown so far to negotiating the State budget. And their thirteen votes in Congress could be key. "If the negotiating table is ignored, it is clear that it will be much more difficult to work to find other possible agreements in other negotiations," said deputy secretary general of ERC, Marta Vilalta. Among negotiations is, in fact, that of the Spanish public accounts.

After the Court of Auditors rejected the allegations of the accused and set a provisional bail of €5.4m, the Generalitat started work on ways to be able to respond and avoid former officials' assets being seized, as advanced by ARA last Wednesday. After the meeting of party leaders every Monday, the spokeswoman of JxCat, Elsa Artadi, has defended in a press conference that the Government should act as guarantor for the accused and thus "protect" the Generalitat's workers. In turn, the deputy secretary general of Esquerra and also spokeswoman, Marta Vilalta, has replied that the executive is preparing a proposal to address the bail demanded by the Court of Auditors, although she has avoided speaking explicitly of becoming guarantor.

Major surprise in the new Government: Jaume Giró will be the new Minister of Economy, ARA has known. This ex-director of La Caixa, who lately gained a special public notoriety as a Joan Laporta's right-hand man in the FC Barcelona elections, has been the person chosen for this key position in the new Government.

Elsa Artadi will not be in Pere Aragonés's government. The news, originally broken by La Vanguardia, was confirmed to ARA by party sources. The Junts spokeswoman will remain in the party as a mayoral candidate for Barcelona. Artadi's decision is personal and rattles party plans: she was expected to be Junts' strong woman in Government, as well as head of the Department of Economy, responsible for the European funds.

After ERC's ultimatum to JxCat to reach a pact went without consequences, the two parties continue to negotiate without closing most of the most important folders. This Tuesday in the Parliament the main negotiating team, with the presence also of the vice-president, Pere Aragonès -as in the last two meetings in Lledoners prison-, has dealt with the structure of the Government. Junts has responded to the Republicans' proposal and now Esquerra will have to evaluate it. Tomorrow, Wednesday, the negotiating teams will meet again - the sectoral ones in the morning and the main ones in the afternoon - but behind closed doors, the two parties have already assumed that the negotiation is on the verge of reaching its limits.