Good advice to interpret political speeches it is always paying more attention to omissions than to resounding assertions. With this method, the decisive intervention of the ‘expresident’ Carlos Puigdemont this Tuesday in Brussels can be read as a invitation to dialogue with the PSOE to invest Pedro Sánchez with prior conditions of political depth that would represent a qualitative leap for the independence movement and for Junts, but that do not collide with insurmountable barriers, as sources from the direct environment of the former head of the Government, of the PSOE and even of CKD, who believe that it is once again approaching the terrain of possibility. In summary: Puigdemont wants to negotiate, but claims that Sanchez not only rehabilitate him and his party, dragging him to the center of the political tableau, but also assume that Catalonia is a nation and undertake a broad amnesty to accept that 1-O was not a crime.
A “historic engagement“, underlined Puigdemont, who has emphasized (a few days after the Diada and in the presence of leaders of the ANC, Òmnium, the CUP and ERC) in emphasizing that today the conditions for a pact do not exist, that the distance with the PSOE is astonishing and that until recently those from Junts were treated as terrorists. But he has also assured, with the same firmness, that his party is prepared for the agreement. What’s more – and this is key – Puigdemont has admitted that if the negotiating framework is fulfilled, this will force him to “work for a commitment” historical because the negotiation can be set “with guarantees of success”.
It is a question, in any case, of emphasizing that if there is an agreement it will be one superior in shape and depth to those forged by ERC. This condition -not made explicit by Puigdemont- is as decisive as the three negotiating guidelines that Puigdemont has established and which do not include (pay attention to this detail in line with attending to what has not been said) the granting of a referendum before the investiture session.
constitutional demands
By not including self-determination, they are requirements, according to him, constitutional and acceptable. It is not closed to negotiations if the PSOE promotes an amnesty law that covers all criminal acts since the 2014 consultation, if it recognizes “the democratic legitimacy” of the independence movement and if it creates a “mediation and verification mechanism” of the agreements. There is a fourth: that the negotiation move within the framework of international treaties on human rights, and in relation to the literature on self-determination and referendums. This implies trying to bring the PSOE to the international legal-political discussion on democracy, minorities, methods of validation and legitimacy.
Regarding the amnesty, the post-convergent leader has specified that cannot be equated to “victims and perpetrators”, that is to say, that it rejects that the police officers accused of the 1-O charges can take advantage of the law to be exonerated. It is not about an amnesty to “forget”, but to repair an injustice, he stressed.
This framework of political concepts is key and has gone ahead, as EL PERIÓDICO advanced, of the sectoral demands, which he has commented in passing, and already known, ranging from the fiscal deficit in Catalonia to the problems of Rodalies. At all times the ‘expresident’ has wanted to raise his gaze, seeking the historical and exceptional character of the agreement, to invite the PSOE to negotiate and to shield itself from a possible critical reaction from the most radical independence movement.
“We have not endured the position these years to end up saving a legislature, it cannot be said more clearly, but to defend the order that we received and that we have preserved from the citizens, a part of which looks at us with suspicion and distrust, but who we have to keep this in mind when we sit down with whoever comes to ask for their support”, he stated at the end of his speech. It is a way of saying that if he endorses the deal, it will be a good deal.
And the referendum?
Thus, the negotiation itself would arrive only after the PSOE fulfilled the conditionsand then the folders of the sectoral demands would be opened and, above them, the referendum. He has not defended that a consultation on the independence of Catalonia is a ‘sine qua non’ condition to vote for the investiture of Sánchez. He has stated that it is his inalienable objective (“the Catalan people have the right to make the decision that they already made in 2017 to be an independent state come true and only an agreed referendum could replace the mandate of 1-O as we have stressed for years “) and has added that if the amnesty was unfeasible in the eyes of the PP and the PSOE and now it is a melon that is opening, so can the referendum, which according to Puigdemont can be held within the framework of the Constitution.
Or elections or pact
Puigdemont, who was in front of the entire Junts leadership and representatives of the ERC and the CUP and of the pro-independence entities (whom he has previously brought together to advance the conference), has taken the opportunity to claim the role of his party against that of Esquerra in in recent years and to warn the PSOE that it is not going to move only for an investiture, but for an agreement of historical significance. The ‘expresident’ has recalled that his party did not sit at the dialogue table, left the government in coalition with Esquerra and avoided approving state budgets, among other measures, to maintain its position in favor of the unilateral path.
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The conclusion, more political than administrative, more of a concept than of budget items, is that if there is an agreement, in the words of Puigdemont, “we are not talking about a patch to push forward the legislature and stop the passage to the right, we are talking about if No agreement has to be a historic agreement, a historic commitment like the one that no Spanish regime or government has been able to make a reality, despite some attempts, since the fall of Barcelona on September 11, 1714”.
The most challenging part, in a certain sense, has been an explicit summons to the PP and the PSOE: “Elections or agreement with Junts, which will not renounce unilateralism“. “We are prepared in case there are elections, but also for a negotiation that wants to culminate in a historic agreement. The question is not whether we are prepared for a negotiation, but whether the two major Spanish parties are ready to negotiate with us with everything we represent, or they simply want to come out and obtain parliamentary support to consolidate leadership or dismantle that of the rival”, he has cleared. Of this long sentence, one part is essential, which includes the “we are prepared” for the agreement. A statement with a great internal key reading addressed to Junts and the independence movement.