President Carles Puigdemont has not only set out the basis on which a future negotiation for Pedro Sánchez's investiture would be conducted, but he has also done something much more important: he has shown a transparency that is rarely seen these days in politics, setting the bar at a height which is close to impossible for the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), but without crossing the red line of no return which would then require him to surrender the ball that he has hung onto since the night of July 23rd to the acting Spanish prime minister so that he can decide if he is ready to play the game - as Sumar openly calls him to - or if, on the contrary, he does not see himself capable of it and will call another election in Spain on January 14th next year. The rules of the game are already crystal clear for those who, from within the PSOE itself, will aim to destroy any agreement - these are led by Felipe González, who has reappeared after his knock-back in the last election when, in his thirst to attack Sánchez, he almost seemed like a backer of Feijóo.
The reaction of the very important media right-wing present in politics, the judiciary, economic and financial sectors in the Spanish capital, will seek to provoke new elections and drown out any possibility of an agreement. In fact, it already began to move vigorously after the meeting at the headquarters of the European Parliament, in Brussels, between Puigdemont and the second deputy PM, Yolanda Díaz: speaking directly of betrayal, labelling Sánchez's approach as "suicide" and accusing him of exchanging votes in return for the president-from-exile's immunity from prosecution. Let no-one misread this: it will be a fight with no holds barred, as it has been up to now, because the right will target him directly and the only doubt is whether the Socialists have enough stamina to withstand the battle they have before them - more in Madrid than in Spain - or whether they will simply not show up, as they have done on other occasions. The left, with much less support from media, economic and financial sectors, and none at all in the judiciary except for the Constitutional Court, will have to fight like never before, if it is to endure the battle of the narrative in the Spanish capital; in the face of the media battle fleet that will be deployed by its rivals, it will only have a few pawns like the weakened Prisa media group and elDiario.es.
There are some signs, perhaps minor at the moment, that suggest that, right now, the game is truly on. Obviously, no one could think that Diaz travelled to Waterloo on her own and at the last minute. Monday's interview was set up many weeks in advance - Jaume Asens has talked about it being organized a month ago and he knows very well what he's talking about - and the Spanish government palace was fully aware of the appointment in the final stretch of August. The terms of the format were agreed beforehand - a walk through the corridors of the European Parliament, the choice of meeting room, those to be present - and completely detailed, not as has been said in a mean-spirited reading in order to give Puigdemont a few minutes of protagonism, but to ensure the recognition of the legitimacy of the figure of the president in exile.
The negotiation proposed by Puigdemont has two major drawbacks: its depth, and the urgency of the calendar. As preconditions for the negotiation, he proposes first the recognition of the democratic legitimacy of the independence movement; secondly, the amnesty and the permanent abandonment of the judicial approach against independentism; and finally, the creation of a mechanism to control and verify the agreements. Of these three points, the second takes time and the third is an unpleasant pill for the Socialists to swallow. As for the amnesty, if we calculate backwards from the deadlines for its approval, before Sánchez's investiture, it would mean that the entry of the bill into Congress would have to take place within just a few weeks. The matter of validation of the agreements is quite a Sword of Damocles for the future government and it is normal that Puigdemont would demand it as a sine qua non due to the experience he has built up, and also, for this same reason, that the PSOE will try to wriggle out of it until the last.
Projecting our gaze a little towards the future, if there is agreement on these points, Sánchez's legislature will be assured and Puigdemont's wish would be for it to last four years, with the scheduling in this time of all the agreements that can be reached. Sánchez, for his part, will not launch into making these prior concessions without having the investiture guaranteed because his electoral situation would then be of enormous weakness. In the same way, Puigdemont's proposal for an historic agreement or commitment, which he solemnizes by affirming that no Spanish government has been able to do such a thing since the fall of Barcelona in 1714 and the subsequent Nova Planta decree that abolished the Catalan institutions - employing a certain Pujol-like historical flourish - cannot end up being a mere patch-up that would maintain the conflict as a chronic problem. Thus, the right to be an independent state would enter the equation, since there is no autonomous community recipe for solving Catalonia's problems.
If all this cannot be, Puigdemont already made it clear in his address that the only route remaining is the repeat election. And that, due to Socialist stubbornness, they would end up tossing a coin to see whether the right had a second chance after its failure on July 23rd. Thus, the game has been given rules and regulations. Now we will see how it evolves and if the players are up to it.