The Spanish government has already closed the door on the proposal for a new self-determination referendum - in the context of a so-called Clarity Agreement - made on Tuesday by the president of Catalonia, Pere Aragonès. The Spanish treasury minister, María Jesús Montero, recalled this Wednesday that the Spanish government has already said "with clarity" on several occasions that the Spanish Constitution cannot accommodate a consultation with the Catalans to decide their political future. "The Catalan government knows perfectly well that with Pedro Sánchez there will not be a referendum in Catalonia", the Socialist said in statements to the media.
The day after the head of the Catalan executive had announced the details of the Clarity Agreement, Montero called on the Generalitat to ensure that "any issue raised by the Catalan government to faithfully follow the constitutional elements". "When someone violates the Constitution, this government denounces them and prosecutes them," warned María Jesús Montero during her response to the new roadmap proposed by Aragonès. Likewise, she asked the Catalan president to use politics to "provide useful solutions" and not raise "questions that are outside the law and seek to distract".
Félix Bolaños later spoke on this same issue. "We are in an electoral campaign, so all proposals have my respect, no matter how unhelpful and realistic they are", criticized the Spanish minister for the PM's department. Also, when answering journalists' questions, he affirmed that Pere Aragonès's proposed Clarity Agreement would involve returning to the "loop" that caused "Catalonia to lose a decade". "The Spanish government is clear that the future of Catalonia depends on agreement, dialogue and opportunities", said Bolaños, in addition to insisting that the proposal put forward by the Government is based on "conflict, division, fragmentation and the tensing of society".
The statements of María Jesús Montero and Félix Bolaños came the day after the Spanish government decided not to give any importance to Pere Aragonès's new announcement. Sources in the Moncloa government palace asked about the Clarity Agreement announced by the Catalan president, chose to avoid the subject and excused themselves from commenting on the issue, arguing that the press conference at the Generalitat in Barcelona had taken place simultaneously with the media session given by the Spanish government after the weekly cabinet meeting. In fact, those sources also passed the ball to the Catalan Socialists, arguing that the parliamentary group in Catalonia would pronounce a view on the issue.
Moreover, it should also be recalled that the Spanish executive asserted months ago that it is no longer "necessary" to continue holding meetings of the dialogue table with the Catalan government. That was what the Spanish government spokesperson, Isabel Rodríguez, said last February on a visit to Catalonia. And she was not the only one: months earlier, sources close to prime minister Pedro Sánchez had already warned the press that the possibility of reconvening the dialogue table was remote because "dialogue has already happened".
"Everything starts with a no"
Later this Wednesday, Pere Aragonès downplayed the Spanish government's initial rejection of his Clarity Agreement proposal. "All negotiations start with a no and this is the first step to start talking", affirmed the president, in a press conference from the Besòs Potable Water Treatment Plant (Barcelona). Despite the blunt refusal from both María Jesús Montero and Félix Bolaños, the Catalan president affirmed that he is keeping his "hand outstretched" to Pedro Sánchez's executive to negotiate "a democratic solution". "We extend our hand to everyone, internally, within Catalonia, towards the state and towards international institutions", he added, also referring to the criticism received from parties such as Junts, which have asserted the "electoralism" in the timing of his revival of a proposal he first set out in September last year.