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Like a tidal wave, the comment by PSOE negotiator José Luis Ábalos on TVE this Wednesday about the talks with ERC, in which he said he's convinced they will renounce the unilateral path to Catalan independence, have devastated the negotiating table they'd been sitting around for the last few weeks. "If on a scale from 1 to 10 the chance of an agreement was at 5, now we're down to 3," ERC sources say privately. In public, spokesperson Marta Vilalta was perhaps even more blunt: "Each time they use blackmail, they distance an agreement".

Indignation and confusion are the two words which best summarise ERC's mood, unclear why PSOE isn't maintaining the discretion around the talks and instead engaging in "opportunistic leaks". "They shouldn't speak for us", said Vilalta, one of ERC's three negotiators, "only ERC's people speak for it". She added: "ERC will never renounce any democratic path to achieve the Catalan republic."

Although they won't go as far as setting out a timetable, ERC does suggest its practically impossible that there will be an investiture before the end of the year. They note that, unlike PSOE, they are in no rush. Many things remain to be settled, they say.

The last formal meeting between the two parties was held last Tuesday. Since then, "negotiations haven't progressed for days", they say. After that meeting in Barcelona, PSOE sent a document with its proposals to ERC who replied with a series of amendments and modifications. And that's where things remain. "We've had no reply," ERC sources say. The main sticking point, according to Vilalta, is the format of the future negotiating table on the Catalan conflict.

ERC leadership had told PSOE that this week had to be counted out for concluding an agreement, given tomorrow's pending decision from the Court of Justice of the European Union on a question relating to Oriol Junqueras and the party's national council meeting this weekend.