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The Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, has announced that he intends to lead his delegation at the first meeting of the negotiating table between Spanish and Catalan governments which is to be held during this month of February. Speaking after his meeting this Thursday with Catalan president Quim Torra, he stressed the need to return to dialogue to overcome the conflict but did not enter into specific proposals. "I have always considered that those of us who have firm positions are not afraid to talk about anything," he said.

"I know that the road will not be easy or fast, there are very deep wounds which cannot be healed just like that. It will take time and effort. And perhaps we'll be surprised that the reencounter is faster than we had initially anticipated," he speculated.

Despite this optimism, the first condition that the Spanish president ruled out was that of a mediator. Sánchez guaranteed that the dialogue would be "frank, transparent and sincere", and as such all Spaniards would be witnesses to it and a mediator would not be required. On the possibility of placing the demands for an amnesty and for self-determination on the table, he asserted that "a democracy is strong when it is able to engage in dialogue".

However, he acknowledged that the questions raised by Torra showed that dialogue would be long and not easy, but that it was necessary to move step by step given the distance between the two sides' starting points. "I am a strong supporter of the self-government of Catalonia because I believe that it is better integrates and agglutinates the sentiments of the population of Catalonia," he added in relation to the debate on self-determination.

The prime minister, who spoke to the press in the Generalitat palace after meeting with Torra for an hour and a quarter, began his speech by saying that Thursday was a very important day for Catalonia and for Spain as a whole, because "in the view of the government, dialogue must begin in order to find each other again."

In his initial discourse, he recalled that in his parliamentary speech during the investiture debate he had called for a return to the political path, leaving behind judicialization, to resume the path of dialogue, negotiation and agreement. "There is no other way to resolve this contentious dispute," he warned because "the law alone is not enough."

 

"I have come to the Generalitat palace with a deep sense of honour to meet the current president and to dialogue," he said, stating his appreciation for Torra's tone in a conversation he described as respectful. According to Sánchez, the meaning of this meeting was "to demonstrate a sincere desire to engage in dialogue and reach accords" and to do so with "deep respect and emotion".

He acknowledged that it was difficult to find the point when "everything went out of shape" but acknowledged that the last decade had been dominated by confrontation and that "no one was the winner" after the conflict and social tension. "No one has won. We've all lost," and all that was left behind was "a wake of discouragement and distress for the entire population", he said.

Sánchez said he had come "to speak of hope and reencounter" in order to achieve a change of direction and a new path of dialogue. "The way of conducting politics must change radically and this is my proposal, to implement action aimed at our reencounter." This was, he said "politics in the most noblest sense, the resolution of conflict through dialogue and agreement." 

The Spanish PM, who also spoke of social welfare, inequalities and climate change, acknowledged that there were sectors that resisted dialogue and that the negotiations would run up against these obstacles, but they would be overcome when those opposed to dialogue found there was no alternative.

He affirmed that his government would endeavour to speak on behalf of all Spaniards, and would have "the common good and the general interest" as its guide. But he also added that he was leading a progressivist coalition government which had won very broad support in the recent general election. "I speak for millions of Spanish citizens and millions of Catalans who demand respect," he added.

Sánchez, who arrived at the Generalitat palace with a multiple-point proposal to present to Torra, also asked the Catalan president to reconsider his absence at Friday's meeting of the Financial and Tax Policy Council, an economic coordination body between Spain's treasury and its autonomous communities.