I'm sorry to keep going on about this, but it's simply a matter of what this character is like: unpredictable and unable to maintain a commitment, whether public or private. This Thursday, Pedro Sánchez demonstrated it once again and the leadership of the Catalan Republican Left (ERC) was left stupefied. Taking advantage of Catalan president Quim Torra's hazy announcement on the electoral calendar in Catalonia - about which we only know that he will announce the election date when the government budget is passed, and that, moreover, we don't know precisely when it will be passed - the Spanish prime minister tried to slip through the opening created and cancel the dialogue table between the two governments. How reluctant he must be to meet, that he should try to dismantle it at the first opportunity and without even talking to those who had signed the agreement!
The prime minister has needed very little time to show his true colours, and furthermore, to do so with the least possible circumspection on the effects his manoeuvre could have on the party that risked most to facilitate his new government. Sánchez's unilateral dodge was so dangerous for ERC that only the party's massive reaction, telephone calls and the visit of Gabriel Rufián to the Spanish government's Moncloa palace were able to bring about a U-turn on the executive's first press statement postponing the dialogue table until after the Catalan elections, a message replaced by another in which the government expressed its willingness to hold the agreed dialogue table "before the Catalan elections".
ERC moved quickly and probably had to put something more on the table than just words to move the Socialists, who must have been contented with their work for a few hours. For anyone who knows how the Moncloa operates, the backtrack is a significant change, very unusual in the Spanish executive, as it had to go from white to black in a very short time and no government likes to do that. Nevertheless, Sánchez has indeed managed to unilaterally modify the agreement to set up the dialogue table within fifteen days of the constitution of the new Spanish government, a date which, as it happens, has already passed, and has now been substituted by the vague deadline of "before the Catalan elections"; right now that could mean before the summer or during the autumn.
Obviously, we have to expect that Pedro Sánchez makes a further rectification, that he respects the letter of the agreements signed, holds the first meeting as soon as possible and schedules future meetings. There are several months for this before the Catalan election which, if not precipitated by the Supreme Court through the disqualification of president Torra, could well end up being held in September or the first week of October. When all is said and done, the president will not be a candidate and once the calendar of the coming months has been decided, budget first and election afterwards, he seems determined to thoroughly explore the real attitude of the Socialists at the intergovernmental table and whether indeed there is a serious proposal, something that so far has not appeared. And it is clear that it will not be possible for the months to keep going by without meetings and without proposals since then, definitely, the Spanish legislature could end up exploding in Sánchez's face.