Pedro Sánchez and Pere Aragonès on Monday acted out the first scene of what has been subtly referred to as the start of the dialogue and, for others slightly more daring, the reencounter. Everyone says they want to begin a new phase, give themselves time to reach agreement, overcome immobility, prioritize pragmatism and even common sense. Recovering common sense, something they talk about again and again in Madrid when you oppose them, when you won't accept the status quo that insists, century after century, that Catalonia, Catalan autonomy, is nothing more than a north-eastern region of Spain. The Spanish government's recipe for Catalonia has no trick to it: a return to being an Autonomous Community with a little more money in new funding. And an executive pardon for the political prisoners, which 61% of Spaniards say they do not want, according to a survey published by El Mundo.
The positions are diametrically opposed - not that this should be an overwhelming worry in a negotiation, if what you are trying to do is be sincere. There have been great agreements throughout history based on a difference of views no less significant than that between Spanish rigidity and Catalan independence. What there has certainly not been, though, is a minefield as densely planted with explosive devices as the present one. The machinery employed by the Spanish state is going beyond even the government. And the Spanish right, in its different facets of politics, justice, media and business, will not let Pedro Sánchez off this hook. To the point that making one's way through the minefield becomes almost impossible.
If not, then, how can it be understood that the Catalan High Court (TSJC) obliges the government of Catalonia, one day before the start of the Selectivitat university entrance exams, and approving the urgent interim measures requested by the pressure group AEB Catalunya, to facilitate the papers in both Catalan and Castilian? Or that the General Council of the Judiciary concludes that defence of Francoism is freedom of expression? Is this the Spain that claims to be democratic and comparable to states like Germany? Foundations that promote the Franco regime cannot be declared illegal and yet we try to equate ourselves to Europe.
Even political moves like that of Oriol Junqueras - moving away from a unilateral referendum and trusting everything to a negotiated referendum like the one in Scotland - are seen as a gesture by the Spanish left, which needs to get some traction in Spain before the prospect of the prisoner pardons. But they are despised by the right, for whom nothing will be enough. It is a move that has bothered ERC's partners in Junts, who refuse to rule out any route and have already generated some problems of trust, which have not gone further because we are right at the beginning of the legislature.
And in a few weeks will come the Court of Accounts, which will strike a real blow against property owned by different Catalan politicians connected to government actions and foreign policy between 2012 and 2017, including Artur Mas, Carles Puigdemont and Oriol Junqueras. And similarly, for up to thirty former senior officials. What will dialogue do about these injustices? Can the Sánchez government just turn away from them? Or will new pardons be needed in the future? And, until when? All because of the refusal to address an Amnesty Bill, the only measure that would be significant. But when you would like to talk about it, there is no one on the other side.