The Catalan president-in-exile, Carles Puigdemont, has called on the Spanish Socialists (PSOE) to make "an historic agreement, an historic commitment", one that is unprecedented since 1714, if they want to achieve the investiture of Pedro Sánchez as leader of the next Spanish government. The exiled leader demanded, as preconditions for the negotiation, the recognition of the democratic legitimacy of the Catalan independence movement; an amnesty as part of "the permanent abandonment of the judicial process; and the creation of a mechanism to control and verify the agreements reached. He did not include an independence referendum among the conditions, but after listing the political, economic and infrastructure grievances, reiterated that Catalonia has the right to become an independent state and only a referendum agreed with the Spanish state can replace the one held on 1st October, 2017. The pro-independence leader's conclusion is that his party, Together for Catalonia (Junts), has not "maintained" its stance for all these recent years to end up "saving a legislature". And that, therefore, if the PSOE wants to allow Pedro Sánchez to form a new government - for which the parliamentary votes of Junts are essential - it will have to accept this negotiation framework.
Today's speech, announced last week by the Junts founder, was held at a hotel in the centre of Brussels, with around 200 people present, including about 60 accredited journalists, an indication of the great interest aroused. In fact, among the attendees were not only deputies and members of the Junts management but also representatives of other Catalan pro-independence parties ERC and the CUP, as well as the president of Òmnium Cultural, Xavier Antich.
An historic agreement
The Catalan politician stated right at the start that "it doesn't seem like the right-wing candidate has enough support to be elected [as Spanish PM]", but "neither does Sánchez". "Spain is currently confronted with one of the dilemmas that it does not always resolve well, whether to maintain the deadlock, or reach a pact", began the president's speech, in which he ironically stated that Spain has a problem, "or, in fact it has two": firstly, that making a pact is an "unusual" device in the resolution of the Spanish state's conflicts, as demonstrated by the inability to renew the General Council of the Judiciary; but in addition, this time it has to negotiate with Junts, after having "attacked, disdained and isolated" this party, which the Catalan Socialists displaced from the mayoralty of Barcelona after successfully appealing for voting support from the PP and the Comuns.
Puigdemont stated that he was not making this reflection out of revenge but to explain the "profound distance" that separates them and the enormous difficulty in trying to get back on track when this distance is the result of a "negotiation that has been neglected for six years". "We are not talking about patching up the situation, we are saying that if there is an agreement, it must be an historic agreement, an historic committment, which no other Spanish regime or government has been able to make a reality since the fall of Barcelona in 1714 and the Nova Planta decree [following it], which abolished the Catalan institutions."
Preconditions
At the outset, he made it clear that his party was ready to negotiate and asked if the major Spanish parties were ready, at which point he set out the preconditions to enable an honest and ambitious negotiation process: first, he spoke of respect for and recognition of the democratic legitimacy of the independence movement - "it is impossible to negotiate with anyone who considers us the second most important threat after jihadist terrorism and asks Europol to treat us as terrorists", he warned.
The second condition is the complete and effective abandonment of judicial action against the independence movement and those who support it. "The 1st October referendum was not a crime, nor was the declaration of independence, nor the mass protests against the repression and the [2019 leaders' trial] verdict of the Supreme Court", he warned, emphasizing that an amnesty law that includes events from before the first independence consultation of 9th November 2014 is within reach of the Spanish Parliament, in addition to underlining the responsibility of the prosecution service and the acting government.
Thirdly, he demanded the creation of a control and verification mechanism to provide guarantees of compliance with the agreements, given that "the total lack of trust between the parties makes this mechanism essential and that it must operate from the beginning of negotiations".
All of these are "preconditions that must be met before the legal deadline for new elections expires", and with which Junts undertakes to negotiate.
Self-determination
Puigdemont did not include a self-determination referendum among the prior conditions for negotiation, but after referring to Catalonia's fiscal deficit, infrastructure deficits, and the non-execution of budget spending envisaged for Catalonia and the lack of state investments, he stressed that "there is no autonomous community recipe for solving Catalonia's problems".
"The Catalan people have the right to become an independent state in the form of a republic and only a referendum agreed with the Spanish state could replace the 1st October vote." "There are no constitutional impediments for the referendum, nor for the amnesty. What there is not is the political will to tackle it, because if you want, you can. And in a democracy there is no other mechanism better than the resolution of this issue by putting it in the hands of the citizens", he replied.
The state's dilemma
He did not hide the fact that today the conditions for this major agreement do not exist and that if there is interest, the conditions should be created, something that will require the elements of the conflict to be clearly identified. From here he listed, first of all, the [2010] sentence against the Catalan Statute of Autonomy, the criminalization of the 2017 referendum, the breaches of agreements, the economic suffocation, the incentivization still in force for businesses to move headquarters out of Catalonia, and the "savage" application of Article 155. "And of course, the most important fact of all, that Catalonia is a nation," Puigdemont replied.
Puigdemont confessed that "nothing would suggest" that the need for a majority to guarantee the investiture of a new government is sufficient to force a change. "Or could it? Could they really make a virtue out of necessity? Today Spain has a complex dilemma, either repeat the general election or make an agreement with a party that has not renounced, nor will it renounce, unilateralism", he replied, adding that there is a third option, for some members of the progressive bloc in Congress to donate their votes to the bloc of the Spanish right.