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Will Pedro Sánchez reply to the letter Jordi Cuixart sent him on Monday, requesting a meeting, as part of the round of contacts that the acting Spanish PM has initiated with the main civil society entities in search of supports to unblock the investiture? For now, Catalonia's Òmnium Cultural* has not received an official reply. However, a source from the Spanish government known to ElNacional.cat stated their position. And the minister spokeswoman Isabel Celaá herself, ruled out the meeting. 

Isabel Celaá made it clear that the request made by Cuixart "has no connection with the round of contacts with social agents" organised by the PSOE. She made the statements precisely as she was coming out of a meeting with the education sector.  

Even if the executive is avoiding the clarification of whether an official response to Cuixart will be sent, the entourage of acting PM Sanchez insist that their will is to form a progressive government that does not depend on the independence forces. But not only that, the same sources reiterate the message that the right of self-determination does not exist in the Spanish Constitution and that international bodies only contemplate it in cases of countries in process of decolonization. 

 

In the letter addressed to Pedro Sánchez from Lledoners prison, Cuixart states that "the democratic resolution to the conflict is through empathy" and "overcoming the fear of dialogue." On this point, the Spanish executive repeats one of their star slogans, "dialogue yes, but within the Constitution", as a staple proposal for any formulation that comes from the pro-independence organisations and leaders. 

The vice president of Òmnium, Marcel Mauri, reinforced the request of Cuixart on Tuesday. "If someone really does flag the dialogue and does not do it for purely electoral marketing, he should want to meet one of the most important and significant entities of the State," he said. At this time they have over 173,000 associates. 

*Òmnium Cultural is the largest cultural NGO in the Spanish State -and one of the largest in Europe- with 173,300 members; founded during Franco's dictatorship (1961), it promotes Catalan Culture and language and Since 2010, together with the Catalan National Assembly (ANC), it has carried out the largest peaceful demonstrations in Europe in support of Catalans´s right to democratically decide their political future. Both Jordi Cuixart and ANC's former president Jordi Sànchez, have now been imprisoned for almost 2 years and are awaiting sentencing from the Supreme Court, accused of rebellion and facing a 30 years prison sentence, "for defending and exercising fundamental rights such as the right to protest and the right to freedom of expression in connection with the Catalan referendum of 1st October 2017"