The meeting between Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez and Catalan president Quim Torra is still pending their teams "matching up agendas". That was the announcement this morning by Sánchez's deputy, Carmen Calvo, who played down the importance of when and where it will take place in favour of what will be discussed.
"The important thing to highlight is that there will be a space for dialogue and to confront the situation in Catalonia with realism," Calvo said. After an interview with public broadcaster TVE tonight, Sánchez will travel to the Davos Forum in Switzerland, where he will be until Wednesday.
"Whether it will be in two or three days is a question which isn't the most important," the deputy prime minister told journalists in the Moncloa government palace. "The main question is that the government of Spain and the government of Catalonia, in the framework of the Spanish state, will talk about a situation which has led us to a deterioration of social harmony, to the courts, to situations which obviously don't show the way to the future, which has to be a future of social harmony and progress for the whole Spanish state," she said.
In his own press conference after heading the first cabinet meeting of his new coalition government, Pedro Sánchez reiterated that Torra "remains president of Catalonia", and as such the appropriate person for him to talk to. Similarly, he said they will meet "as soon as possible".