The Catalan president, Quim Torra, won't meet Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez next Friday, when he is in Barcelona for a cabinet meeting, unless it is to discuss "all topics", including Catalan claims for a referendum on self-determination, Catalan government sources say.
"If they're not willing to discuss topics in depth, there's no need for meetings", the sources say, in response to the letter the deputy prime minister, Carmen Calvo, sent to the vice-president, Pere Aragonès, offering a meeting to take advantage of their trip to Barcelona.
The Catalan government says the president's position is unchanged from that he expressed on 9th July. That day, following his meeting with Sánchez in Madrid, he announced a second meeting in Catalonia, with the aim of discussing "in depth" all questions relating to the Catalan debate.
"There's no need to have a meeting to talk about Rodalies [commuter trains]. For that, there are the bilateral [commissions] between the Catalan ministry and the Spanish department," they emphasised.
The Catalan government didn't ignore the fact that the letter from the deputy prime minister makes it clear that their proposal is to hold a meeting as "normal in similar situations". In that sense, akin to the one held with the president of Andalusia, Susana Díaz (PSOE), when the cabinet met in Seville in late October.