Catalan president Carles Puigdemont has this Monday called on Pedro Sánchez's Spanish government, as a condition to discuss supporting the budget he's presented to the Congress, to create a round table on the right to self-determination supervised by independent observers. Puigdemont announced the proposal publically after proposing it to the senior leadership of his PDeCAT party, which in recent days has been strongly divided over whether they should support the budget or not. "There are not today the conditions either for processing or for passing [it]", he warned.
Outside the House of the Republic in Waterloo, and surrounded by senior party figures, he explained the conditions for the party's deputies to give the go-ahead to processing the bill. Among those present in Belgium at the meeting were Ferran Bel, who starred in a public confrontation with the party's vice-president and Puigdemont confidant, Míriam Nogueras, over whether they should support the budget or not.
The proposal was accepted by party leadership once it was clear that Sánchez still has time to take action. PDeCAT is setting conditions, but leaving the door open to processing it in February. Puigdemont said that the wish to negotiate will remain "until the last moment".
The warning to Sánchez, however, is clear and direct: "In the current circumstances, there cannot be an approval of the budget, nor should we offer ourselves to process it".
As well as the round table, Puigdemont also called for, "guarantees, which haven't been given so far, all agreements will be met because all the important agreements, starting with the Statute of Autonomy, have been clearly broken". "It's clear we don't trust in it", he said, calling for an independent testimony to verify whether they are met or not.
In his remarks, the president argued that the Catalan debate goes far beyond a budget and that PSOE, despite PDeCAT's support in the motion of no-confidence in Mariano Rajoy that took them to power, has made no real gesture relating to Catalonia, because "there's no wish for real dialogue".
"We've enabled Mr Sánchez to talk about a budget, but despite the calls and constant gestures, today, Pedro Sánchez's government, in relation to the political conflict in Catalonia, has exactly the same policy as Rajoy's government," the president said.