The appointment is at 10 a.m. this Wednesday at Moncloa and Bolaños, Díaz, Rodríguez and Iceta attend for the Government. For the Government, Vilagrà, Torrent, Elena and Garriga | Both parties maintain that there will be concrete agreements. Sedition is off the radar of the Executive, who does not want to suffer more wear after the pardons
After several days of silence and discreet conversations between both executives, finally this Wednesday, July 27, at 10 a.m., the dialogue table between the central government and the Catalan government meets in Moncloa. An appointment with a novelty: the incorporation in the delegation of the Govern, of the holders of the Interior, Joan Ignacio Elenaand culture, Natalia Garrigawithout it having previously transpired whether or not issues related to security or the cultural sphere will be addressed.
This Wednesday’s meeting comes ten months after the previous one (which was held in Barcelona), with little expectation of significant agreements and with the outright rejection of Junts, minority partner of Pere Aragonès. However, both governments maintain, without giving details, that there will be concrete results. It is very likely, according to the sources consulted, that one of the agreements will revolve around issues “identity“, without greater precision.
For the Government of Pedro Sánchez, the single call, which follows the meeting of the two presidents on July 15, also in Moncloa, is a success, a sample of the “normal” returned, that the crisis over the Pegasus case has been overcome. But they stress that there will not be, nor is it possible, any rapprochement around the two core issues raised by the independence movement: amnesty and referendum. The two parties will seal an agreement that Their respective teams have already worked in recent months and, with more intensity, in these previous weeks.In fact, according to sources from the Executive, there is already a document practically closedwhich will bless the two delegations this Wednesday.
It is likely that an agreement will revolve around “identity” issues, according to the sources consulted, who do not provide greater precision
The ERC spokeswoman, Marta Vilalta, read the meeting call positively on Tuesday and implicitly responded to Junts’ criticism. For Vilalta, the table “is the only way to advance in the resolution of the political conflict”, compared to those who “do not propose anything, nor do they want to accompany us. “We’re sorry, but this does not stop us to sit down before the State to negotiate and to be able to establish the necessary guarantees and methodology to dejudicialize the conflict,” he said.
At this Wednesday’s appointment the presidents will not attend for the first time. On behalf of the Government, the head of the delegation will be the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños. With him will sit the second vice president, Yolanda Díaz —representing United We Can—; the spokeswoman for the Executive, Isabel Rodríguez, and the Minister of Culture, Miquel Iceta. That is, the interlocutors remain, without any change. This newspaper already advanced it last Sunday, as well as Wednesday as the safest date of the call, which was finally confirmed.
On the Catalan side, the Minister for the Presidency, Laura Vilagrà; the head of Business and Work, Roger Torrent – both already participated in the meeting last September -, together with the aforementioned Elena and Garriga. This was decided by Aragonès within the meeting of the Consell Executiu. The four are ‘consellers’ of ERC and none of Junts, who considers this table “exhausted” and asks to “turn the page” and “take action”.
The dialogue table will meet this Wednesday to “dejudicialize” the conflict https://t.co/HGCwqWbGn4 pic.twitter.com/Bs7CaCOfuc
– Europe Press TV (@europapress_tv) July 26, 2022
Sedition: no more wear
ERC presses for a reform of the crime of sedition, but neither Rodríguez nor the spokeswoman for the Government, Patricia Plaja, the topics for debate advanced. The minister remarked at a press conference after the Cabinet meeting that the Executive values ”positively” that the crime of sedition can be modified and “come closer” to that contemplated in other surrounding countries, but he insisted that the Government is “very aware” that very large parliamentary majorities are needed for a modification of the Penal Code. The bipartisan party could build an absolute majority with its partners, but the PSOE does not want to touch the legislation without the PP.The reason, as they recognize from Moncloa, is that does not want to suffer more political wear after the erosion caused by the granting of pardons to the leaders of the ‘procés’, last year.
In the Treasury they are optimistic that the ERC will support the 2023 Budgets, and the table is “a good start”. He has already agreed to those two tenths of a deficit margin at his request
For the Socialists, who will launch the electoral machinery around the summer, the regional and municipal elections in May are a priority, and then the general ones, and they want to avoid further sources of tension. And they assume that the agreements will have to be meager because of the such distant starting positions Government and Generalitat.
In the Executive, it is emphasized that the relaxation with ERC will help carry out the General State Budgets for 2023. Sources from the Treasury point out that the two-tenths of the deficit margin that the Government will grant to the autonomous communities and that the State will have to absorb has been agreed with the Republicans. “The options that we approve the accounts for next year they are the same ones we had 12 months ago. We do not believe that there are now added elements of tension. Yes there were with Pegasus. And we do not see a pre-electoral environment that makes agreements difficult because there is more than a year left for the general elections. That the table meets again is a good start,” they point out.
The Government pursues the dejudicialization
The objective, assumes the Executive of Aragonès, is to advance in the dejudicialization in upcoming meetings
For its part, the Government has insisted that the meeting will take place because there are previously closed deals between both administrations. The immediate objective of the Generalitat is to achieve the so-called dejudicialization of the procés through legislative changes that affect the crime of sedition and the functioning of the Court of Auditors. But sources from the Presidency of the Generalitat already stressed days ago that the objective will not be completed at this Wednesday’s meeting, but must continue to be pursued in future meetings. The following, theoretically, should be held at the end of the year, as agreed by Bolaños and Vilagrà. The final goal of the Government is to achieve amnesty and self-determination, implantable for the Government.
While the Spanish government is blanqueja to other internationals, sense cap political advance but tot the contrary, it is carreguen the rights of an exile that carries gairebé five years maintaining the position. He sees that the problem did not follow here.
all support @LluisPuigGordi https://t.co/ve10284rJf— krls.eth / Carles Puigdemont (@KRLS) July 26, 2022
As soon as the call for the meeting was confirmed, the former leader of Junts and ‘expresident’ Carles Puigdemont, jumped for the ERC jugular. In a tweet, she stated that this appointment “whitewashes the Spanish government in international eyes, without any political advance, but quite the opposite.” Puigdemont made the ERC ugly that its members on the Parliamentary Board abstained in a vote on the possibility that the ‘ex-conseller’ Luis Puigwho fled to Belgium, can continue to vote by proxy in parliamentary committees.