Sánchez opens up to a meeting with Aragonès after espionage

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In Moncloa they do not rule out the route required by the ‘president’, although they warn that other formulas fit, such as an appointment from the cabinets or the dialogue table. The priority, they point out, is to “intensify contacts”, “redouble efforts” to restore confidence, so it is too early to advance “concretions”

The government is going to doeverything that is” in your hands to “restore confidence & rdquor; with the Generalitat. It offers dialogue, because it defends that it is its “sign of identity & rdquor; since Pedro Sánchez arrived at Moncloa in 2018, and does not rule out any formula that allows relations with the Government to be redirected after tension has increased due to the alleged espionage of independence leaders between 2017 and 2020 through the Israeli-made programs Pegasus and Candiru. From the outset, the central Executive does not exclude a path insistently demanded in the last few hours by Pere Aragonès: a bilateral meeting between the two presidents. It’s just an option, but others are not ruled out as an appointment of the cabinets of both or the reactivation of the dialogue table.

For Moncloa, the key is in the “attitude” shown by the Government, on which there can be “doubt”. “We want to continue working on the basis of dialogue, a committed and true dialogue. If there is a party, in this case the Generalitat, that believes that relations have suffered, the Government is going to redouble efforts to restore that trust that has so far borne fruit. We are not going to ignore each other, we are going to intensify the contacts, the channels of communication and the institutional dialogue & rdquor ;, sources from the Sánchez team explain to this newspaper.

The Executive, through its spokesperson, Isabel Rodríguez, already stressed on Tuesday that it has had nothing to do with the monitoring of more than 60 pro-independence leaders and activists, victims of espionage through the Pegasus or Candiru programs that sneaked into their mobiles. But that message that he has “nothing to hide & rdquor; (without clarifying whether the National Intelligence Center was able to use the Israeli tool because the law prevents it from being revealed) has not been enough for Aragonès, who insists on a face to face with Sánchez.

Aragonès threatens to withdraw parliamentary support for the Government if responsibilities are not cleared up and explanations are given

In fact, he defends that only with explanations in hand and purging responsibilities will it be possible to staunch a trust “very damaged & rdquor; with the government. This Wednesday, the ‘president’ threatened to withdraw the parliamentary support of ERC, an essential partner of PSOE and United We Can, if no light is shed on what happened. To show his anger and increase the pressure on Sánchez, the Republican leader travel this Thursday to Madrid to meet in Congress with the supposedly spied parties (ERC, Junts, PDECAT, Bildu and the CUP).

What steps will the Government take now, therefore? In Moncloa they answer that it is still early to anticipate “concretions & rdquor;. But they do insist that “at no time has institutional communication been interrupted & rdquor; and in that the two executives are “in contact & rdquor ;, so “formulas are going to be found to restore trust & rdquor; loss.

No to meetings without content

And what is meant by “intensify contacts”? “We’ll see. We’ll see if there is a meeting between the two presidents, between the cabinets of both, between ministers and ‘consellers’, the dialogue table, providing evidence, another type of negotiation… It’s not scheduled. Already we know how to mend relationships and how to lower the tension with the Generalitat, because we have done it so far in these years. It’s our way of working. This is a government committed to negotiation and dialogue & rdquor ;, they underline from Moncloa, where no deadlines are set to restore normality. It is also warned that an interview between the two presidents “that had no content” would not make sense. The “important” thing, they emphasize, is “keep talking and working&rdquor ;, and study all possible paths, to later specify.

In Moncloa they highlight their “sign of identity”, the dialogue: “We already know how to rebuild relations and how to lower the tension with the Generalitat, because we have done it so far in these years”

From the reflections and words of the Government, from Sánchez’s hard core, it is clear that worry about discomfort shown by the Government and the will to rebuild the bridges. Not in vain, ERC is a key partner for the bipartisan: its 13 votes in Congress are essential for the validation of decree laws and the approval of Executive projects, to confer stability to the coalition and give it gasoline until 2023. A rupture of relations would complicate the existence of the same Cabinet and would give more tricks to the right.

For this reason, from Ferraz it is emphasized that it is necessary to “manage time & rdquor ;. “no need to be nervous and we must offer dialogue, as we always do, forget about the smoke screens that some put out and in which others enter so that there is no talk of the corruption of the PP & rdquor ;, they indicate from the socialist leadership. In fact, in the leadership of the party, they do not outright rule out the meeting between Sánchez and Aragonès, aware that ERC “is good for getting its head out & rdquor ;, although the will of the socialists it is not “to put the focus & rdquor; in the Pegasus case.

The Government’s unequivocal attempts to re-establish communication with the Generalitat will be extended to all spaces. Moncloa sources emphasize that their intention is to clarify this alleged espionage in all areas: “We are going to collaborate with the Justice in everything that can and should be & rdquor ;. But the blind spot in this matter is that, according to research by the organization Citizen Lab —an interdisciplinary laboratory linked to the University of Toronto, which has made it public—, Aragonès’s phone is infected by Pegasus’ software when he was Vice President and Minister of Economy. And that data is what commits the socialist Executive.

Government “proactivity”

It is not possible to hide behind the fact that it concerns the previous legislature, when the 1-O referendum took place, the 155 and Carles Puigdemont fled from Spain, when the CNI, then controlled by Soraya Sáez de Santamaría, devoted great efforts to curbing the independence challenge. However, in Moncloa they do not move one iota from the position that they do not have “nothing to do with this storya”.

Defense Minister Margarita Robles, responsible for the CNI, will give explanations in Congress. And although the information that she can provide to the Defense Commission will be limited because it is a reserved matter, the Executive also intends to give details in the official Secrets Commission, despite the fact that at this stage of the legislature it is not constituted by cross party vetoes.

Robles urges the groups to start up the official secrets commission to be able to give reserved details that cannot be revealed in public

Robles defended this Wednesday that the commission be formed so that “without any reservation” you can speak clearly. “There is proactivity on the part of the Government & rdquor ;, they point out in Moncloa.

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All this demand for clarification, the distrust that the Generalitat has installed in the institutional relationship, the opening even in Barcelona of a judicial investigation, points to the fact that the process to recover normality and return to the fluidity of these years can be something. But both parties have taken care to preserve the dialogue table throughout this conflict. The ‘president’ of the Generalitat made it very clear that “never“He will renounce the dialogue process despite suspicions of espionage. In this sense, the planned meeting between the two governments is not in danger.

It is still more difficult to agree on its celebration because Moncloa and the Government must first solve the Pegasus issue, but both institutions remain anchored to the commitment to seek a political solution to the Catalan conflict. The initial idea of ​​the Government was to fit the meeting after the elections of February 13 in Castilla y León. The Russian invasion of Ukraine upset all plans and continues to do so. With the horizon, in addition, safe elections in Andalusia in June, and the NATO summit that same month. And now pending also that the explanations of the Government are convincing for the Generalitat.



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