The two agreements reached today by the Government of Spain and the Generalitat de Catalunyaafter almost two hours of meeting of the dialogue tableconstitute a good news which puts an end to several legislatures marked by disagreement, if not open conflict, between both institutions. This change of scenery defines by itself the scope of the signed document, beyond its specific content, relevant in what refers to the protection and promotion of the Catalan languageY more generic in terms of the will to overcome the judicialization of the political conflict that has marked the last few years. With this, a new and hopeful dynamic is beginning, not without difficulties, which should allow for greater specificities in future meetings of the table, scheduled for the end of the year.
The agreements reached constitute, without a doubt, theogres of the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchezwhich has opted, from the first moment of the legislature, for dialogue with Catalonia, and the President of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, who has assumed political dialogue as the path through which the aspirations of his Government must travel. Their commitment is all the more valuable when it is known that both have had to face the opposition, among others, the Partido Popular and Junts per Catalunya, which did not send representatives to the meeting. In this context, it is particularly relevant that the Government delegation, headed by the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, has signed a text that promises to remove from the courts those aspects of the ‘procés’ that can be addressed through legislative reforms . It is also of singular significance that the Generalitat delegation, headed by the ‘consellera’ of the Presidency, Laura Vilagrà, has implicitly renounced the unilateral route, by assuming that political and institutional activity must take place “in accordance with democratic institutions and procedures.”
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With regard to dejudicialization, the disagreement that remains between the parties was made clear by Bolaños’ insistence that there is no parliamentary majority for itwhile Vilagrà considers that it does existif concrete proposals are presented that could affect the gag law, the role of the Court of Auditors or the reform of the crime of sedition in the Penal Code, an issue of special relevance for the Catalan independence movement.
The shielding of the new law of Catalan at school, and other measures aimed at its protection and promotion are more specific agreements that have a broad consensus in Catalonia and with the opposition of the state right. That the Government does not appeal the law approved by a large majority of the Parliament constitutes an intelligent decision, insofar as it allows each center to adapt the percentage of teaching in each language, thus attending to pedagogical and linguistic criteria that allow full mastery of the Spanish and Catalan, and not to judicial criteria that do not take into account the complexity of Catalan society. The agreement of the dialogue table of promote Catalan in the Senate (as well as Basque and Galician), reforming the regulations of the Cortes, reinforces the Executive’s commitment to consider the co-official languages as the heritage of all Spaniards. His decision to ask the presidency of the European Parliament to Catalan is the language of use in the plenaryan old claim that also has support beyond independence.