The dialogue table will meet monthly and the agreement will be “within a framework of legal certainty” | Policy

So there is such Few expected joint statement and appearance After the first dialogue table meeting, they sounded much more positive than expected. After a three-hour meeting, the government and parliament agreed to hold monthly meetings in Madrid and Barcelona – although neither the president nor the vice president would be present – and they added the word “agreement” to their statement, meaning that this is at least considered a possibility. The only limitation is that these hypothetical agreements “will be within the framework of legal certainty”, without explicitly mentioning the constitution.

The most important phrase reached during three hours of intense negotiations is open to many interpretations. “Any agreement adopted at this table will be made within the framework of legal certainty.” As happened in the Grant and Pedralbes agreements a year ago, the Constitution does not appear as a limitation, although the government understands that it is implicit in the concept of “legal certainty.”

In another major conflicting element, the parliamentary demand to be able to speak at the meeting on self-determination and amnesty for prisoners, a middle ground was sought. According to Quim Torra, who struck a much softer tone than on other occasions, The independents made these demands but received no response from the executive branch. That said, the issue also did not become an insurmountable obstacle, just pushed aside to try to move forward. Similarly, the request for a mediator was not responded to, Torra said. Ministerial spokeswoman Maria Jesús Montero later made it clear that Sánchez had made clear his traditional position that self-determination and amnesty were unconstitutional and concluded on the issue of a mediator: “We do not agree” that the number of rapporteurs is necessary. “

Torra assured that the first meeting was “table zero” and that he hoped that in the following meetings, the solution would be “deepened”. “This was an open debate with a free approach that highlighted the differences between the parties on the nature and means of resolving the political conflict in Catalonia,” Torra said.

he president let It is very clear that representatives of the Catalan government They do not want to resolve management issues at this negotiating table, which they call “the department,” and the bilateral committee between the central administration and the government will meet again soon to deal with these types of issues.

Torra asked not to mix the dialogue table with other political issues, such as the elections or the vote on the public deficit target that will be voted on today in Congress. Even so, both the ERC and Junts per Catalunya are well aware of the outcome of this board meeting, which culminated in the decision to allow the first step of the budget to be approved, and everything indicates that, especially after the atmosphere of this meeting, they will be able to move forward. Montero said the deficit target was not discussed at the meeting, but that it suggests that the government will see a vote against it as a complete break. “I am confident that the vote will be this Thursday. If we really need to prioritize specific agreements in bilateral commissions or in these meetings, then it is obviously the budget that needs to be done,” said a spokesman for Sánchez’s cabinet.

The government has a very positive impression of the event. “After a decade of only accusations, this is the first step in institutional and emotional relations. Today we begin a new phase marked by a reunion agenda. Our differences are many, this is a very complex negotiation and we do not expect results in the short term,” said Montero. “The option of standing aside has been tested and has radicalized positions. Our obligation is to rebuild bridges,” insisted the spokesman. “We need imaginative proposals that propose elements on which we can move forward. The president’s attitude towards self-determination is very clear,” concluded the minister.

Montero said that, like Torra, it was a very “sincere”, “honest” and “dynamic” meeting. All the words used by the two representatives reflected the very distant positions of the meeting, but at the same time the tone was a far cry from the breakdown in relations since the independentists overturned Sánchez’s budget in February 2019. Since then, things have changed radically. Despite the clear divisions in the independence movement and the climate before the Catalan elections, both groups seem willing to continue to hold their own tables and no one wants to be the one to break up the dialogue. Despite the obvious tensions between Junts and the ERC, Montero said that he “found no difference in tone” in the meetings of the representatives of the two parties. Torra, he explained, “moderated” everyone’s positions. Montero pointed out what type of agreement the government is looking for: “Any agreement must have legal certainty, other than promoting changes in regulations or amendments to the statutes.” This is the way out that the executive sees, but it is not a path that the independentists are taking, at least for now.

_