The meeting is to go ahead, but it will scarcely be the same. After days of sowing doubts and studying the new scenario, the Spanish government has opted to go ahead with the meeting between Pedro Sánchez and Quim Torra on Thursday, February 6th in Barcelona. However, for Madrid, the announcement of an early election in Catalonia changes everything. Now the Spanish executive has unilaterally decided to delay the constitution of the dialogue table between the Spanish and Catalan governments. The 15-day deadline for the setting up of the table, as agreed between the PSOE and ERC in the deal to vote in the new government, had already been breached. But now it is practically disappearing beyond the political horizon: dialogue on the conflict will not begin until after the Catalans have voted and the new Parliament of Catalonia has been constituted. At the moment, there is not even an election date. Meanwhile, the Spanish prime minister will take advantage of the meeting next Thursday to also meet with Ada Colau.
The Spanish government issued a five-point statement this Thursday at noon. First of all, the coalition executive expresses "respect" for president Torra's decision to call an early Catalan election and it also "maintains its willingness to start the process of dialogue with Catalan institutions to resolve the political conflict". However, the third point introduces the nuances: "The [Spanish] government hopes to be able to start this dialogue when the Catalan people have spoken and the new Parliament is formed, as well as the new [Catalan] government". Madrid recalls that "the sooner the election is held and the new government is established, the sooner we will start the dialogue." That is, probably without Torra as president.
Until then, any dialogue will be limited to the day-to-day: "It is clear that the election process does not preclude the necessary relationship between administrations to solve the pressing problems of Catalan society," says the Sánchez government, giving the example of the consequences of Storm Gloria. The Spanish executive expresses its desire to "maintain this collaboration between the different ministries".
The Socialist leader will not only spend Thursday 6th in Barcelona, but will extend his stay for 24 hours longer. After meeting with president Torra, Sánchez intends to meet with the mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, the head of the Barcelona provincial authority, Núria Marín, as well as with the association Barcelona Global on Friday 7th, which groups together 221 companies, research centres, entrepreneurs, business schools, universities and cultural institutions.