There is to be a new meeting of the dialogue table. The Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, appeared this morning at Barcelona's Palau de la Generalitat with the aim of speaking to the Catalan president, Pere Aragonès, on the implementation of the accords that helped the Socialists to form a new Spanish government. At the end of the meeting, the two leaders announced five agreements, including a new gathering of the dialogue table established in 2020 and a new law to guarantee pluri-lingualism, establishing the right to use Catalan when addressing the state administration, and, in addition, strengthening the Catalan school model based on linguistic immersion.
Sánchez arrived at the Generalitat building shortly just before half past twelve amidst heckling from both independence supporters and right-wing Spanish nationalists who were waiting for him in Plaça Sant Jaume. Aragonès received him in the palace's first internal courtyard, the Pati de Carruatges, and the pair inspected a guard of honour from the Mossos d'Esquadra, who, this time, carried long weapons.
Dialogue table
At the end of the leaders' meeting, the first to appear before the press was Sánchez, who explained the five major agreements that had been reached, including the calling of another meeting of the Catalan-Spanish dialogue table, which will take place in the first quarter of 2024. As Sánchez said, it is the first meeting this legislature and the fourth time it has met since being launched three years ago. According to Aragonès, it will be the meeting that sets in motion the new phase of dialogue for the two leaders, in which the president of the Generalitat intends to argue for the holding of a referendum on independence. "All this is possible because the amnesty is opening a new stage in which we are leaving repression behind," Aragonès said.
Among the agreements announced is also the implementation of the transfer of the Rodalies rail services to Catalan hands - "a complex transfer, whose realization will require a lot of work", warned Sánchez. The Spanish PM explained that, after a first meeting held this December by Spanish transport minister Óscar Puente and Catalan counterpart Ester Capella, the corresponding bilateral commission will be launched at the beginning of 2024 to finalize the transfer.
Likewise, Sánchez announced the promotion of a Spanish law to guarantee plurilingualism in the first session of the new Congress, with the aim of guaranteeing the linguistic rights of Catalans in their relations with the Spanish administration. Aragonès added that this legislation must also "support with tangible measures all the initiatives to preserve the Catalan school's linguistic model" and to guarantee the presence of the language in Spanish public media.
Finally, the head of the Spanish executive announced that next Wednesday his cabinet will approve the transfer of the Minimum Income scheme to the Catalan government; and also, that it will support the installation in Catalonia of a technological centre for the production of computer chip prototypes, Innofab, with the two governments have committed to guarantee the necessary funds.
Catalonia's financing
Regarding the reform of the autonomous communities' financing system, Sánchez explained that, as was assumed in the investiture agreement between the Socialists (PSOE) and the Catalan Republican Left (ERC), the state administration will assume 20% of the current debt of the Generalitat of Catalonia, and they are working to detail the mechanism to carry out the retirement of the autonomous debt. For the moment, however, he stated that in January a debate will be opened with all 17 of Spain's autonomous communities to address this issue.
"Catalonia must make up for lost time", advised Sánchez, asserting that the two leaders have agreed to recover the PSOE concept of "re-encounter" and that today's meeting was an "example of institutional normality, political normality", which he described as a "very satisfying milestone".
Referendum
During the meeting, Aragonès reiterated the demand for the national recognition of Catalonia, through a referendum. At this point, Sánchez also repeated the position of the government of Spain, and his own view as secretary general of the PSOE, to rule out the referendum. "What we have to do is move forward on a path to strengthen Catalonia's self-government and within this framework, within the Constitution, we will be able to talk about many things, to strengthen financing, self-government or issues in the field of language", explained the Spanish president, in addition to insisting on underlining "the shared will by the two governments to leave behind a time of discord and confrontation" and to give each other an opportunity "for re-encounter". "We're going to practice politics, that's why we're here," he explained.
For his part, Aragonès emphasized that at today's meeting they certified that "the agreements are being carried out" and repeatedly insisted that dialogue is moving to a new stage, thanks to a "well-drafted amnesty law, which is being implemented despite attempts to stop it from the right and the far right, in different areas, including in a part of the senior judiciary."