As much as he Government of Pedro Sanchez insist that Catalonia has turned the page on the ‘procés’ thanks to its commitment to dialogue to pacify the conflict, the Government of Pere Aragones denies the majority and defends that the claim of the right of self determination and the consequences of a judicialization that persists are proof that the Gordian knot has not loosened. But a new electoral cycle is underway and the Generalitat assumes that it has entered a non-working period to go further in the negotiation with Moncloa. That is why the ‘president’ has proposed to advance in his proposal of clarity agreement to establish the bases of an agreed referendum, a purpose closely linked to the promotion of a foreign agenda that his team strives to cultivate.
The philosophy is that, while the dialog table is on ‘stand by’ waiting for a new momentum to reactivate it -ERC calculates that this can happen depending on the needs of Sánchez after the general elections-, international dialogue is a “priority” to reinforce the presence of Catalonia beyond its borders and weave alliances that consolidate it as a “committed and reliable actor” facing the great global challenges. It is about strengthening relations that also serve to find greater understanding and reciprocity when addressing the territorial conflict with the State. In fact, the “internationalization” It is one of the main axes of action of the road map of the Republicans.
The Government makes a positive balance of the activity in this matter in the last two years and, especially, in the last few months, despite the harsh criticism that the tour for Latin America of March. On the one hand, they underline that relations with the European Commission have been resumed thanks to Aragonès’s meetings with commissioners, a level of contacts that had not occurred since 2015, just before the years of maximum pro-independence effervescence. They also highlight the five meetings with ministers of states -Chile, Argentina and Colombia- that the ‘president’ has maintained upon reaching the halfway point of the legislature, the same as all his predecessors since 2014, and the intensification of ties with the European Parliament and organizations such as the United Nations, UNESCO or the World Health Organization. The ‘president’ has held meetings with all of them.
In total, Aragonès has made 14 international trips in a dozen countries: Scotland, France, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, the United States, Ireland, Colombia, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile and Andorra. A balance to which are added the 13 made by the ‘councillor’ of Acció Exterior, Meritxell Serret, to a dozen countries since he took office last October. With this count already behind us, the Government’s vocation is to accelerate its foreign action in the second half of its mandate with a recently approved specific plan to project itself over the next three years as a “influential actor” in the European Union.
More delegations than ever
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The Government also projects the delegations abroad as another of the pillars of its international agenda. In the budget pact sealed with the PSC, Aragonès promised to do not expand the already existing network this year, so it will focus, for now, on the twenty -the highest number the Generalitat has ever had- that are already operational (13) or that are in the deployment phase (7). The next one to be created, as Aragonès recently announced during the tour in Latin America, will be Colombia. This network of delegations will be complemented by the creation of a new figure, that of “sent” of the Government, in countries that require “special attention”, as is the case of Ireland.
But beyond the commitment not to open new offices during this 2023, the Government does is studying the strategic enclaves in which later, and within the plan drawn up until 2026, a consolidated company wants to have a presence that understands that it will have some benefits in diplomatic, economic, cultural and social terms, but also in terms of complicities before the claim to hold a referendum on independence.