After almost a year of inactivity, the dialogue table This week he sits down again with the Government and the Generalitat with one objective: to weave concrete agreements regarding a key issue, the dejudicialization of the ‘procés’. A decisive issue for the independence movement and that Moncloa has also raised, although with different meanings. The meeting is preceded by great mistrust after the espionage ‘Pegasus case’, but ERC hopes to achieve some step forward in the face of Junts slamming the door to the table, and the appointment is also prolonged by relevant movements such as the resignation of the state attorney general, Dolores Delgadofor medical problems, and the decision to anna gabrielfrom the CUP, to follow in the footsteps of the Republican Meritxell Serret and appear before the Supreme Court.
The appointment, the third since the constitution of the body, in February 2020, and the first without the presence of the presidents, is being developed with very high measures of discretion in both parts, to the point that it has not yet been confirmed or announced what day of the week the two delegations will dispatch in Madrid, although everything points to Wednesday 27 or Thursday 28 July as the most likely days —these are the dates offered by the Executive , in fact—, since this Monday is a holiday in the capital, on Tuesday there is the Council of Ministers and on Friday the PSOE executive is chained in Ferraz, Pedro Sánchez’s balance appearance and the start of the president’s trip to the Balkans. The Wednesday 27 it is drawn, ‘a priori’, as the “safer” date, indicate government sources, in the absence of matching the schedules. And it is that on Thursday the monclovita agenda is loaded by the successive interviews of the socialist leader with the regional presidents sworn in this year: Juanma Moreno (Andalusia), Alfonso Rueda (Galicia) and Alfonso Fernández Mañueco (Castilla y León), all three from the PP.
The final objective of the ‘president’ and separatism is known: amnesty and referendum. Both issues to which the Government refuses
The Government will confirm the absence of joints, despite the express request of the President of the Government to form part of the Catalan delegation. But Jordi Turull’s formation maintains its refusal, arguing not only that the names it proposed in its day were vetoed, but also that this instrument has become outdated and the independence movement must take “action” and not wait for the fruits of dialogue.
On the other hand, ERC maintains the banner of negotiation against Junts, and has even urged its partners in the Government to make decisions if they consider that it does not make sense to maintain this strategy. The Republicans expect two basic issues from the meeting in Madrid: one, concrete steps, and two, a commitment that these advances have continuity in time through other steps along the same lines to avoid legal clashes. The final objective of the ‘president’ and of the independence movement as a whole is known: amnesty Y self determination. Both issues to which the Government radically refuses. There will be no rapprochement there.
The context: favorable steps
Talking about dejudicialization implies two different schedules. One is what any legislative power can do with light and stenographers: modify the legal framework, thus facilitating the reduction of the space for conflict. In this sense, the modification of the crime of sedition is still on the table, one of those that weighs on the former leaders of the ‘procés’ still on the run abroad. On this, the position of the Prime Minister has been favorable, but he has argued that he lacks a majority in Congress to carry it out. Position from which it will not move.
The meeting is preceded by two important personal decisions: the resignation of the attorney general for health reasons and the delivery of Anna Gabriel to the Supreme Court, following in the footsteps of Serret
But there is another agenda, more discreet. The dialogue table is preceded by two decisions precisely from the judicial sphere. One, the resignation from the attorney general for health reasons. Delgado, a former socialist minister, has directed the public ministry for two years with many controversies. The prosecution is a key body in present and future qualifications of judicial cases still alive regarding the ‘procés’.
Another recent decision has been the decision of the ‘cupaire’ Anna Gabriel – who lives in Switzerland – to appear before the Supreme Court avoiding going to prison because she only weighs on her a possible crime of disobedience. Follow in the footsteps of the former Government delegate in Brussels and ‘consellera’ Meritxell Serret. When she handed herself over to the Spanish Justice, she saw how the accusation of embezzlement of public funds disappeared and her case was reduced to a crime of disobedience, as the ‘procés’ sentence had set with the ‘consellers’ who shared responsibility with she. It will be judged by the Superior Court of Justice of Cataloniaas happened with the members of the Parliamentary Board when it was chaired by Carme Forcadell.
The next movement could be given by the ERC leader Martha Rovira, displaced in Switzerland. She herself has ruled out, for now, an immediate return, alleging that even if the crime of sedition were revised downwards, an accusation also weighs on her for rebellion. All of these are steps along the line of the pact and, therefore, at the antipodes of confrontation.
No team specification
In Moncloa prevails a radical mutism. Sánchez has been focused in the last week on adjusting the new heart of power in the PSOE, precipitated after the resignation of Adriana Lastra as deputy secretary general. Relays ratified this July 23 by assent in the party’s federal committee.
In the president’s environment they have not even revealed the delegation – last September, in Barcelona, Yolanda Díaz, Félix Bolaños, Isabel Rodríguez and Miquel Iceta attended -, although it is clear that, in the absence of Sánchez, the head of it will be the Minister of the Presidency, the leader’s right-hand man and the one who has managed to redirect relations with the Government after the outbreak of the ‘Pegasus case’. The interlocutors and their number will be adjusted depending on who is traveling from Barcelona, although everything indicates that the Executive delegation will repeat: Bolaños, Rodríguez and Iceta are part of the strategy committee (the ‘supermaitins’) confirmed this week, and the second vice president enters for the quota of United We Can.
“Law of silence until we close things,” they maintain from Moncloa. That is, mouth shut for the moment. The Government emphasizes the relevance of the photo of the two presidents
“Law of silence until we close things“, they maintain from Moncloa. That is, mouth closed for the moment. In the last two weeks the Government insisted that the fundamental thing was the photo between the two presidents, on July 15, the evidence of the return to the “normal“after the distancing from Pegasus. And they pointed to the attitude of ERC in Congress: in the last plenary session, in the week of the nation’s debate, the pro-independence formation returned to the group of allies of the Executive and supported ten of the 15 resolutions presented for the PSOE (in three others he abstained) and helped Sánchez in the voting on several legislative initiatives.The next challenge will be the 2023 Budgets.
In recent months, the two governments have worked on specific matters that have not come to light, which also leads the Government to affirm that at the next meeting there will be fruits. “It will be positive, with agreements, although everything is pending closure,” says a member of the Cabinet involved in the negotiations with the Generalitat. However, there will be another table appointment at the end of the year. For the Executive, in any case, the dejudicialization is to lead the ties with the Generalitat through dialogue, which does not prevent that if there are indications of crime they are taken to court. But sedition and rebellion will not be reviewed, as Bolaños ratified in this newspaper.
Together, against
For this reason, Junts – whose former leader and ‘ex-president’ Carles Puigdemont is still in Belgium – views all these advances with great suspicion. They wonder if the ERC and the PSOE have agreed with Judge Pablo Llarena to facilitate situations such as the anna gabriel. And in private they inquire if the dejudicialization means only benefiting Republican leaders. They explain it in relation to the pending case Josep Maria Jove Y Lluis Salvadodeputies in Parliament.
In Junts they wonder if dejudicializing means only benefiting Republican leaders
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These are just some of the cases still pending, which can clear or block the path of dialogue. together expresses its belligerent position against the Government on all fronts, and reminds ERC that the table is meeting without having met the Aragonès conditions to unfreeze relations due to the ‘Pegasus case’, which the independence movement described as an unprecedented scandal.
The conditions were to open a commission of inquiry, to offer guarantees that espionage would not be repeated, and to assume political responsibilities. From the recent meeting in Moncloa between Aragonese Y Sanchez No public progress was made regarding Pegasus, but there was the decision to maintain the dialogue and convene the table, which met —already without Junts— in September of last year at the Palau de la Generalitat without much progress.