- PSOE Sánchez resorts to a slogan from the Second World War to boost the morale of its militants: "Keep calm & carry on"
The first bilateral meeting between the PSOE and Junts after the signing of the investiture agreement will take place this week in the Swiss city of Geneva. According to socialist sources, it will be attended on behalf of the party by its Secretary of Organization, Santos Cerdán, who was the person who was negotiating in Brussels and who was photographed with Carles Puigdemont before the signing of the agreement, although the rest of the members of his delegation do not specify.
Despite the initial rejection that was about to derail the investiture pact, Pedro Sánchez now sees the figure of the verifier as an aid to the relationship and dialogue with the pro-independence party. He said this in an informal conversation with journalists who have accompanied him this week on his visit to Israel, Palestine and Egypt. In the opinion of the head of the Executive, this figure, which limits the dialogue between parties, is useful between formations that present distant positions and among which, as both sectors recognize, there is mistrust.
From the socialist leadership they point out that this "international verification mechanism" would not have to be a specific person, but that this function could be carried out by an organization that would verify the progress that could be made in these talks, which are expected to have a monthly periodicity.
In the PSOE they now defend the usefulness of this figure because they start from "totally antagonistic" positions, since Junts calls for a referendum on self-determination, while Sánchez's team has offered to "develop" the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia. They also underline a very important change with respect to what was there until now, that at least they are going to "sit down and talk".
As in the negotiation of the investiture, Ferraz's leadership resorts to the maxim of "discretion in the talks" and "publicity in the agreements", if they are achieved.