An amnesty law, recognition and respect for the “democratic legitimacy” of Catalonia’s independence movement and the creation of a mechanism to verify future political agreements with Madrid are the red lines set out by separatist leader Carles Puigdemont on Tuesday for the start of formal negotiations to reinstate Spain’s acting Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.
In a crowded press conference held in Brussels and followed with expectation in Madrid, Puigdemont, the leader of the centre-liberal pro-independence Junts Per Catalunya (Together for Catalonia, JXCat), pointed out that these are all “preconditions” which today “do not exist” and which, in his view, “are not contrary to the (Spanish) Constitution (of 1978)”: a political full stop for Madrid.
The socialist party (PSOE/S&D) spokesman in Parliament, Patxi López, and the government spokeswoman, Isabel Rodríguez, stressed that Puigdemont’s conditions are –in principle- unacceptable for the EU Executive.
“Our positions (PSOE and JXCat) are diametrically opposed”, both stressed on Tuesday, Spanish media reported.
Former socialist Prime Minister Felipe González, a figure revered among those nostalgic for a different PSOE than the party currently led by Sánchez, also sharply criticised Puigdemont’s conditions.
“Neither amnesty nor self-determination fits in the Constitution”, González stressed, EURACTIV´s partner EFE reported.
End of left-wing and centre-liberal “duopoly” of Catalan separatism?
These two measures are demanded by JXCat and the left-wing Catalan separatist formation Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (Republican Left of Catalonia, ERC), who fight each other for the “monopoly” of Catalonia’s pro-independence movement.
In Catalonia, the snap general election winner held on 23 July was the local branch of the PSOE (PSC). The political battle among the two Catalan pro-independence parties will be tough, as regional elections are due in 2024.
The JxCAT MEP, for his part, demanded to stop “criminalising” the “historical fact of 1-0 (October 2017)”, vindicated the (illegal and unilateral) declaration of (Catalonia’s) independence (in 2017), the public consultation held on 9 November 2014 (about Catalonia’s independence) and criticised the ruling of the Spanish Constitutional Court in 2010 against the Catalan Statute and that of the Supreme Court that condemned pro-independence leaders in 2019 for the 2017 illegal referendum.
“It has to be done to repair an injustice, not to forget or to put an end to it, nor, of course, to put the victims of these injustices on an equal footing with their perpetrators”, Puigdemont pointed out.
Finally, he called for creating a mechanism to verify the monitoring and fulfilment of future agreements with Madrid because “the total lack of trust between the parties means that this mechanism is essential and should operate from the beginning of the negotiations”.
Meanwhile, Feijóo, who on Tuesday continued his round of contacts to try to gain support for his “doomed-to-fail” investiture, as analysts have described it, met with the leader of VOX, Santiago Abascal, with whose party the PP governs in several city councils and autonomous communities.
However, upon learning of the conditions set by Puigdemont, he refused to meet with JXCat, a party with which, in principle, he was willing to enter into dialogue. Puigdemont’s conditions are unacceptable for the PP, party sources stressed.
(Fernando Heller | EuroEFE.EURACTIV.es, Laura Zornoza and Dani Rovirosa | EFE-Brussels)
Read more with EURACTIV
Reynders takes over commission’s competition portfolioEU justice chief Didier Reynders on Tuesday (5 September) said he had been assigned the Commission’s competition portfolio following outgoing Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager’s announcement that she is officially a candidate for the presidency of the EIB.
Source: euractiv.com
