• Brussels, Puigdemont tries to influence the investiture of Pedro Sánchez from Waterloo
  • Pacts.Junqueras demands "concrete assignments" to the Socialists
  • First meeting: PSOE and JxCat will continue talks for the investiture after their first meeting

The pressure of Carles Puigdemont to condition the talks between the PSOE and ERC on the investiture begins to take effect. Pedro Sánchez accepted Tuesday to politically rehabilitate Quim Torra as a valid interlocutor to negotiate the exit to the Catalan "political conflict".

The third meeting between the negotiating teams of the Socialists and the Republicans - the first one held in Barcelona - illuminated a new joint communiqué initialed by the PSOE, the PSC and ERC in which the parties undertake to "address" the negotiation on the " political conflict from respect and mutual institutional recognition. "

Although the president is avoided mentioning, the PSOE accepts, thus, to reestablish the institutional relationship with the Generalitat, fully revitalized as a result of the protests against the 1-O ruling and Torra's resistance to condemn the violence.

Sanchez goes from not picking up the telephone to the head of the Catalan Executive to declare "respect and institutional recognition" to a Generalitat, which continues to drive the secessionist challenge and is still directed by a Torra that asks the Catalans for "high levels of sacrifice" to consummate secession and facing disqualification after admitting to the judge to have "disobeyed."

Both the PSOE and ERC seek to protect themselves from the boycott of the toughest wing of independence. The one that Puigdemont pilots from Waterloo in direct line with the Committees of Defense of the Republic ( CDR ), as they recognized to this newspaper sources of the republican dome.

The demands of JxCat

These sources admit that the main objective of the meeting held in Barcelona was "to save the pressure of JxCat", initiated on Monday, when the fugitive brought together Torra and all the neo-convergent charges to increase the investiture, introducing new demands to those raised by ERC , who did not see "necessary" to include Torra on the negotiating table on the "Catalan political conflict", as publicly expressed by the national coordinator of the Republicans and vice president of the Government, Pere Aragonès .

"Any dialogue to find a solution to the institutional blockade in Catalonia must include the main group of the Parliament and who holds the presidency of Catalonia, and the importance of the recognition of interlocutions and that institutional respect must be emphasized," proclaimed Laura Borràs, acting as spokesman, after finishing the meeting in Waterloo. "Respect and institutional recognition" that this Tuesday was literally granted by the PSOE.

If he had not agreed, JxCat intended to complete his boycott maneuver this Thursday at the Parliament, forcing ERC to position itself and vote on a resolution in which the Puigdemont asked to force the PSOE to accept a "peer-to-peer" dialogue that includes an "interlocution" solid "between Sánchez and President Torra to agree" a referendum on self-determination "in a bilateral negotiation supervised by an" international mediator ", a rapporteur, the figure that abruptly terminated the negotiation initiated in Pedralbes on December 20, 2018.

After learning that the PSOE had yielded at that point, JxCat announced that it was withdrawing its motion to "facilitate" the negotiation on the investiture of Sánchez. Negotiation in which the PSOE agreed to include the Puigdemont party with a meeting held last Wednesday, although their votes are not necessary for the socialist candidate to be anointed. The heirs of CDC are waiting for the Socialists to quote them again in order to continue the talks.

The threat of Puigdemont

"It is a decision of political opportunity, to interpret that there are negotiations in Madrid and that this debate could generate complexity or introduce elements of complication at this time in the negotiations," said the usual belligerent spokesman for JxCat in the Parliament, Eduard Pujol .

However, Pujol warned that his party reserves the right to reactivate the motion to re-introduce it in the debates of the Parlament "when the time comes", as it reflects its point of view on "relations between Spain and Catalonia" and "that posture does not change, it remains the same. "

Puigdemont has managed, for the moment, to prevent ERC from taking over all the prominence in the negotiation of the investiture, but does not rule out returning to a position of blocking the State and pointing to the Republicans if he estimates that the revenue obtained in the talks with the PSOE it does not allow him to promote himself before the separatist parish as the person responsible for having succeeded in beating Sánchez.

The CDRs continue to act in tune with the fugitive and Puigdemont also contemplates that trick to continue influencing the investiture. Already confirmed on Tuesday ERC, which dawned with a graffiti at its headquarters that read: "Self-determination is not negotiated." A statement released by the radicals was also addressed to the Junqueras party, in which they called "fraud" and "insult" the negotiation between the PSOE and ERC.

Barcelona Metropolitan Area

That explains that, although the initial claim of ERC was to drag the PSOE to hold the meeting in the Parliament, to show that the state government is decided at the "headquarters of the sovereignty of Catalonia", end up agreeing to move the meeting to the headquarters of the Metropolitan Area of ​​Barcelona to shelter from the fire independence friend. These precautions also explain that the appointment began at 10 am, when he had informed the press that he would do so at 12 noon.

There is a circumstance that the event took place in the room where the Government of the Metropolitan Area of ​​Barcelona meets regularly, a supramunicipal entity that groups the Catalan capital and the 35 municipalities that surround it and directs a four-party formed by the common, the PSC, ERC and JxCat and chaired by Ada Colau.

This is not a minor gesture, since the negotiation of the investiture is closely linked to the governance of the Generalitat and the Barcelona City Council. An ERC agreement with the PSOE could result in a pact for the commons to support the Generalitat Budgets, extended since 2017, and for ERC to approve the Colau and PSC accounts at the Consistory.

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  • PSOE
  • ERC
  • Catalonia
  • PSC
  • CDR
  • Barcelona
  • Quim Torra
  • Pedro Sanchez
  • Laura Borràs
  • Carles Puigdemont

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