After six months in hibernation, since the ‘president’ Pere Aragones announced his plan at the general policy debate at the end of September, and after the negotiation of budgets with the PSC, a 10 day trip in Latin America, a medical emergency and, for that matter, the very Easterthe Government has already taken the first steps towards a clarity agreement for the holding of a referendum on self-determination in Catalonia. The public kick-off took place last Tuesday, with the presentation, by Aragonès himself, of the sequence of steps that must occupy the remainder of 2023. But the start of the process, out of the spotlight, started a few weeks ago.
The first task that Aragonès set for himself was to form an academic council that would issue a open report and that it be one of the documents to be taken into account for the final elaboration of the proposal and transfer it to Madrid. And in it is the Government, although this Thursday and Friday, there have been remarkable advances.
The first movement came in the week prior to Easter when an unknown number of people with experience in universities in terms of conflict resolution were contacted to propose their participation in this ‘counsel of wise men’ Because of how the pre-candidates ‘breathed’, the Executive ruled out some. The door was also opened, obviously, to those contactees who, for good reason, professional or personal cause, or for being in disagreement with goal From this advice, they decided to exit the scene. All those who could and wanted to go ahead, some with some doubt, with the ‘casting’ saw themselves with the Government in the very week of Easter, to “make contact”, says a voice from the Palau de la Generalitat.
One by one
The next phase has taken place between this Thursday and this Friday and has taken the form of individual interviews. After these, some names have already become part of the academic council. Thus, as this newspaper has learned the first three names chosen would be that of the professor of Law and Political Science Studies at the UOC and collaborator of EL PERIÓDICO pau bossacoma; JD, Professor of Public Law and Human Law at the University of Edinburgh, Elisenda Casanas, and the professor of Philosophy of Law at the Pompeu Fabra University, Josep Lluis Marti.
According to sources with first-hand knowledge of the selection process, the Government has indicated to the academics contacted that the intention was not to create a court of pro-ERC scholars who would validate the actions of Pere Aragonès, but rather to seek a wide range of thought, with a certain wish of generational relief with respect to the names that, during the hard stage of the ‘procès’ dominated the media. “This council will issue a report that will add up to the result of the debate with the public, with the entities and with the political parties. From the sum of all this will come the final proposal of clarity agreement”explained a voice from the Government last Tuesday, when the ‘president’ announced the eight steps that must be used throughout 2023.
This same voice graphically summarized what is intended: “The academic council will not be the ‘father’ of the clarity agreement. They will sign a consultative report where some solutions are pointed out, which may be, in the end, viable or not. They delimit, until a certain point, the play field where the Government is going to move, but they do not set what type of game the Executive is going to play”
gray areas
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“The experts have been guaranteed,” continues the person who has lived through this process, “that there would be no political use and they have been urged to work in full freedom and giving ‘open’ answers”, that is, fleeing from the binary and entering the gray area. “In fact”, sentences this voice, “that is the academic work”.
Likewise, it has been exposed to those contacted that the item to be resolved is not the resolution of the conflict itself, in a generic way, but thethe adoption of the vote on independence as a solution. This does not mean that, if someone considers, in the academic framework, rather than ideological, that this is not the best option, they can reason and include it in the report.