Pedro Sánchez got the photo he wanted with Quim Torra. The Catalan government (vice-president Aragonès and minister Elsa Artadi) got the photo it wanted with the Spanish government (deputy PM Carmen Calvo and minister Meritxell Batet). There was a joint statement from the two governments, something unprecedented for a meeting, mini-summit or whatever they want to call it. It recognises the existence of a political conflict over the future of Catalonia, puts its lot in with effective dialogue between the governments and sets them to produce a political proposal which enjoys broad support from Catalan society. It also adds that this will have to take place within the framework of legal certainty. The two sides can explain it however they want, that is politics at the end of the day, but the noise that was heard in Madrid yesterday evening leaves the Catalan government with better cards than the Spanish one.
Catalan government spokesperson and presidency minister Artadi beat minister Batet to it: she gave the first public account with aplomb, skill and brilliance and left the first version of the story on the table, which is the one that matters. By the time Batet was up, the horse had bolted and the news stories had already been published. Also already published was the ridiculous moment when a civil servant from Madrid placed a plant with red flowers between the two heads of government to hide the two plants, both yellow, there were in accordance with Catalan government protocol. Believing in an agreement when stooping to the level of the colour of the flowers is almost miraculous, but anyway...
It's true that one meeting doesn't solve anything and, as a result, as has been seen on other occasions, the words blow away with the wind. Actions speak louder than words. Pedro Sánchez has already shown that he's a genius at the three shell game and this Thursday put on a more statesman-like face than ever. Obviously, lowering this Friday's climate of protest against the Spanish cabinet meeting in Barcelona which brought thousands of people into the streets was also on the agenda for many of the things we saw this Thursday, both in Pedralbes palace and later in Foment del Treball's business dinner in hotel Sofía.
Albert Rivera already said, as soon as the series of meeting finished in the Pedralbes palace, that there had been an image of Spain's humiliation with Sánchez having given Torra "treatment as if he were a head of state". After his usual insults, he concludes that it's a new historical act of irresponsibility. It didn't take long for Pablo Casado to use similar language and words: Spanish humiliation, not everything is worth it to remain in power, demanding a new article 155... And Santiago Abascal, the head of far-right Vox, was missing, who, as expected of him, took it a step further: "And Pedro Sánchez, instead of arresting the coup leader, meets with him".
The Spanish right is going all out and at full speed: it doesn't want Sánchez to last. The left-winger slaloms, looking to gain time any way possible. And the independence movement moves between the government and the protest without having either a clear road map or an agreement over the steps to take. It's also true that it flagellates itself to excess and that it succumbs too often to the noise from Madrid which it's not able to put aside, since the Spanish media apparatus floods everything.