For the first time, a bilateral commission between the Spanish and Catalan governments is going to talk about the situation of the Catalan political prisoners and a self-determination referendum in Catalonia. It will be on 1st August, in Barcelona, and the two questions come in point 6 of the agenda agreed by the administrations. It won't be negotiation, obviously. Nor, perhaps, even a dialogue, since the territorial policy and civil service minister, Meritxell Batet, said, when the agenda was revealed, that there is nothing to negotiate on the topic of a referendum, since the concept isn't recognised in Spanish legislation.
There's no room for optimism, as such, as to the final result of this meeting on the topic of a self-determination referendum. But remember that 48 hours ago the foreign minister, Josep Borrell, was stating that it wouldn't be on the agenda. But it is. It will be a heavyweight Catalan delegation headed by the minister of international action and institutional relations, Ernest Maragall, and will include the vice-president, Pere Aragonès, the presidency minister, Elsa Artadi, and the Catalan government's delegate to Madrid, Ferran Mascarell. On behalf of the Spanish government, as well as minister Batet, various secretaries of state and their delegate to Catalonia, Teresa Cunillera, will attend. It's worth repeating that it will be the first time that a body for cooperation between the state administration and Catalonia, created, obviously, under Spanish legislation, will at least listen to the Catalan government's arguments and the claim of more than two million Catalans.
Politics is a game of agreements and swapping cards. It's possible that PSOE, despite bringing its ministers out en masse to threaten the end of the legislature after PDeCAT's conference, has concluded that nothing would secure their hold on government as much as being in power. Much more so than an election. And has put vice-president Carmen Calvo and the leaders of the parliamentary party to work in search of agreements with the two pro-independence Catalan parties. We'll see if that translates this Friday into support for the spending ceiling in the Congress, a crucial question for the Spanish executive. Sergi Sabrià from ERC said it too this Thursday when he indicated that sorting out Rodalies trains won't solve the Catalan problem.
The Catalan independence movement is governing in Catalonia to put on the table the questions of greatest concern for the Catalan people, and the situation of the prisoners and the referendum are two of, if not the most important. And Madrid has to end up understanding that.