Catalan president Quim Torra took his turn before the press in his government's Generalitat palace. Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez had just spoken about the two leaders' meeting this Thursday at midday and the dialogue table encounters ahead; now it was Torra saying that, like the prime minister, he too would lead his delegation at the Spain-Catalonia negotiation table, which as the Spanish PM had proposed, would be held this February. In fact, said Torra, he believed that he would not only lead the first meeting but all of them, and that the encounters should begin as soon as possible.
Torra, who described the dialogue he had had with Sànchez as calm and cordial, remarked that he still did not know what the Spanish prime minister's proposal was for Catalonia and that he had not received answers to his demands regarding the end of the state's repression. "We talk a lot about gestures, but what we want are solutions," said the head of the Catalan executive, insisting that if a negotiation was to be undertaken, it had to address the underlying issues and get to "the root of conflict".
The president said that the demands of the pro-independence majority were not new and that his executive knew very well what it was asking for, that is, to exercise the right to self-determination, with a referendum agreed with the Spanish state, and for an end to the repression, through an amnesty for prisoners and a halt to prosecutions. "On the exercise of the right to self-determination, the Spanish government has not moved, and prime minister Sánchez conveyed to me that his thesis is that of self-government within the constitution, and I have had no response about the end of the repression," he said.
Torra explained to Sánchez that Catalan nationalism has always sought a bilateral relationship with the Spanish state and that Catalonia should be recognized as a sovereign political subject that can take its own decisions.
The president reviewed the three meetings that he and Sánchez have now held, those of Madrid and Pedralbes in 2018, and today's encounter at which, he said, the necessity to specify the real solutions to the political conflict has emerged as paramount. He asserted that the format and conditions of the dialogue ahead now had to be specified and emphasized that the Catalan government had never walked away from a dialogue or negotiation table, but he also repeatedly stressed the need for actual proposals to materialize. "We must have guarantees. If we have to negotiate, it is to get to the root of the political conflict. We are here not to create expectations but to find solutions," he said.
As for the terms of the dialogue, Torra called on Sánchez to recognize those imprisoned and in exile if he aspires to reach a solution. For the moment, he announced that he is calling for two technical teams to be created that will establish the format, content and timing of the first meeting.
Torra attributed no special importance to the fact that Sánchez had recognized him as president despite the controversy over his disqualification from MP status, and nor did he comment on whether this represents a change in political cycle. "When I speak of confrontation I always speak of a democratic confrontation for the rights of all citizens," he asserted before the journalists, explaining that the pro-independence claims and the defence of his seat also had the effect of causing Spain to face up to its democratic shortcomings.