Exiled Catalan president Carles Puigdemont and Podemos secretary general Pablo Iglesias spoke for 45 minutes by phone this Sunday, in the first formal contact between the exiled politician and the leader of one of the parties forming the Spanish government's parliamentary majority.
"They spoke about the political situation in Catalonia and Spain, the political scenario created by the no-confidence motion [against former PM Rajoy], the new relationships between the parliamentary forces in the Spanish congress and the situation of the political prisoners and exiles", according to sources close to the exiled president.
Iglesias also released news of the conversation via a tweet in which he expresses himself in almost exactly the same words, referring also to "Catalan political prisoners and exiles", a term which breaks with the Spanish government's established discourse - as the Spanish authorities deny that the jailed pro-independence leaders are imprisoned for political reasons.
Hemos hablado de la situación política en Catalunya y en España, del escenario político creado tras la moción de censura, de las nuevas correlaciones de fuerzas parlamentarias y de la situación de los presos políticos catalanes y los exiliados.
— Pablo Iglesias (@Pablo_Iglesias_) 21 of October 2018
The conversation between the two politicians took place two days after the Podemos leader visited the jailed president of Catalan Republican Left (ERC), Oriol Junqueras, and prior to his meeting on Monday with the lehendakari - the Basque prime minister - Iñigo Urkullu. The sources close to the Catalan leader say Sunday's conversation "went very well".
"Iglesias let president Puigdemont know that, as leader of the largest pro-independence political force in the coalition governing Catalonia, he is a very important interlocutor, independently of his legal status and his condition of being in exile", add the JxCat sources, a message also repeated in a further Iglesias tweet.
Meeting in person
Both politicians agreed on "the need to open up spaces of political dialogue without excluding any subject", spaces which at present do not exist and which are "the pre-condition to make any type of agreement possible in the future".
As a conclusion of this first telephone contact, the leaders agreed for the conversations between them to continue. As well, the Catalan president invited Pablo Iglesias to hold a meeting in person.
However, the Podemos leader explained on Twitter that, although he thanked Puigdemont for the proposal and will consider it, the important thing now is "to maintain the contact".
Me ha invitado a tener una reunión presencial. Se lo agradezco y lo consideraré pero por el momento pienso que lo importante es mantener el contacto. — Pablo Iglesias (@Pablo_Iglesias_) 21 of October 2018