For a few months now, in fact, since the very moment of the agreement last May to form the new government in Catalonia, there has been talk of the so-called dialogue table, which we should get used to calling the negotiation table. Thus, at least, we would avoid being confused, as Pedro Sánchez wants us to be, by offers of chats over coffee, spiritual reconciliation exercises and sessions in which the independence movement flagellates itself and assumes its mistakes.
There has also been endless discussion on whether any result can be expected that will unblock - or at least put on track - the political and national conflict between Catalonia and Spain, and, to a lesser extent, the matter of what profile would be best for the members who should sit at the table - or at least, on the Catalan side of it - at the meeting scheduled for the third week of September. So that no-one gets the wrong idea, it should be remembered that it was the Sánchez government itself that recognized the existence of a "conflict over the future of Catalonia" in the so-called Pedralbes declaration, the result of the only meeting of the table held so far, on December 20th, 2018.
Just because there is a fairly widespread consensus within the independence movement - which I fully share - that, unfortunately, the upcoming meeting will be useless because the Spanish state does not see this forum as something important and definitive, but rather as a necessary formality resulting from the parliamentary support of the ERC party for Pedro Sánchez, this should not be an excuse to prevent things on the Catalan side from being done as well as possible and responding to the highest political ambition.
At present, at least from the Spanish side, the cards are already on the table: the Catalan conflict has disappeared from its political agenda. This was reported by the newspaper El País at the beginning of August, it has been propagated this summer by the most important ministers, in all the media in which they have had the opportunity to speak, and it has been nailed home, without any shame, by Sánchez , this Wednesday, at a conference at the Casa América in Madrid in which he announced his priorities for the new political term.
There, he went through his goals for the year that is now beginning, one by one, and Catalonia did not exist. He confirmed, in case there were any doubts, that the Spanish government regards the Catalan contention as closed, until further notice of the independence movement. And because he feels so relieved, believing that he has now overcome the onslaught from the Spanish right over the partial pardons granted to the political prisoners, he has also set aside the promised reform of the Penal Code aimed at addressing the modification of the offences of sedition and rebellion.
Thus, no one should be fooled about Sánchez’s intentions: confuse, confuse, and confuse. And to talk about the issues appropriate for a regional agenda, such as, at present, the expansion of El Prat airport and the possible Winter Olympics through a Barcelona-Pyrenees candidacy, in which it seems that, also, it will be necessary to include the ski slopes of Aragon. This would be something similar to a new generation's version of the "Here, chick, chick, chick!" that Jordi Pujol coined, with great success, at an election rally in 2002, when talking about the historical attitude of the governments of Spain with Catalonia .
What, then, does the Catalan independence movement have to do in this current "meanwhile" interval before a hypothetical new democratic combat with Spain? First of all, make it clear over and over again that it holds a political and social majority in Catalonia and to show it without any complexes. Secondly, demonstrate through actions that it preserves its ambitions intact and that the independence of Catalonia is an achievable political goal, not just a romantic longing.
Thirdly, show that the movement is alive, and ready to resume its journey, once it is established that the negotiating table will be useless. Adhering to this script would be the best way to make it clear that what has happened in Catalonia since 2012 is not a soufflé, but the expression of a citizenship demanding their national liberation.
If the negotiating table is just a role-play for the Spanish state, for the independence movement it must be the lever that makes it possible to unmask internationally the state of immobility in all Spanish structures, which prevents anything from changing. Also the complete lack of will to accept the democratic decision of the majority of Catalans. The same immobility that prevents the immunity of president Carles Puigdemont and the other MEPs in exile from being preserved, causes the rights of political prisoners to be violated in the Supreme Court trial and the latest decisions of the Council of Europe to be breached. In short, to portray Spain as it is: a state that falls short of the standards of European democracies.
This goal can be achieved, once the end result of the table is the resounding failure that is foretold, if things are done correctly, with ambition and intelligence. Only in this way will it be possible to counter Sánchez's exaggerated and false campaign, tended with public money - which some international media have already bought - asserting that it is the independence movement that does not want to engage in dialogue. If the independence movement is anything, it has always been the world champion of dialogue! Meanwhile, on the other side, no-one has ever been willing to negotiate, giving truth to the maxim that, when it comes to territorial issues, Spain does not negotiate, it always imposes itself by force.
Once there is clarity on the attitude, agenda and demands - an amnesty, a referendum, and self-determination - what remains is the important issue of names. And this is where, I feel - and I am sorry to say - the question is being addressed without strategy, ambition, or generosity. The negotiating table for the conflict between Catalonia and Spain cannot be one more table like those already maintained by the Spanish and Catalan governments. Of these tables, there are already at least four: the Bilateral Committee State-Generalitat, the Bilateral Committee on Infrastructures, the Mixed Committee on Economic and Taxation Issues and the Mixed Committee on State-Generalitat Transfers. What would the sense be, then, in a fifth table like the four that already exist?
It is necessary to get free as quickly as possible from the sticky cobweb that Pedro Sánchez has woven, in which the same interlocutors will talk about everything at different tables. Didn't we agree that the Catalan government would manage the day-to-day affairs of Catalans, within the autonomous community structure, and that the pro-independence parties and civil groups would take charge of the new roadmap to independence? So do it.
It should not be the Catalan government that is on the other side of the table of the president of the Spanish government but the whole of the independence movement, led by president Pere Aragonès. But there must be no one else from his government.
It should not be the Catalan government that is on the other side of the table from the Spanish prime minister - obviously, if Sánchez is not there, you do not go to the meeting - but the whole of the independence movement, led, of course, by the highest authority in Catalonia: president Pere Aragonès. But there must be no one else from his government.
If the Catalan delegation is considered in a broad way, without excluding people, and with the intention of imposing the greatest possible respect on Spain and, at the same time, to awaken the greatest international repercussion, the senior figures of the Catalan Republican Left (ERC) and Together for Catalonia (Junts) should be there. In the same way, this would guarantee the differentiation of the table from the autonomous government, thus breaking Sánchez's opportunism and redirecting it towards its only possible meaning: that of a decisive political forum - and one of dialogue and negotiation, of course - without any limitation. And at which, in addition to a public lectern, there is space for discretion.
Alongside Aragonès (who, in addition to being president of the Generalitat, is ERC coordinator) should be Oriol Junqueras (president of ERC) and Marta Vilalta (assistant general secretary) since Marta Rovira, in Geneva exile, cannot be present. On the part of Junts, the same approach would be used as president Carles Puigdemont is exiled in Brussels: Laura Borràs (speaker of parliament and Junts candidate for the presidency in the February 14th elections), Jordi Sànchez (secretary general) and a third name (why not incorporate a prominent personality who fulfills specific characteristics?). In the case of a further member from both parties, they could be the presidents of the parliamentary groups in the Catalan chamber or two other of the pardoned political prisoners.
But I consider it a mistake for the Catalan side to be constrained to representation from ERC and Junts. Also present should be the CUP party, and the key civil groups Òmnium Cultural and the ANC, with their most prominent figures. Can you imagine a Catalan delegation made up of figures such as the following: Pere Aragonès, Laura Borràs, Oriol Junqueras, Jordi Sànchez, Dolors Sabater (CUP presidential candidate), Jordi Cuixart and Elisenda Paluzie? Undoubtedly, this would upset all the thinking in Spain.
I know that a lower-profile delegation could be sent to the meetings and, as is being considered, a new "Chiefs of Staff" group, with the government - as in 2017 - could establish the main lines of negotiation from the outside. But the game of the dialogue table also consists of the international visualization of those taking part. Hence the importance of proving that in negotiation and dialogue you pull out all the stops. That it was once again Spain that failed and did not want to negotiate.