The president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, will meet this Tuesday afternoon with former President Carles Puigdemont, and leader of Junts Per Catalunya. The meeting, behind closed doors, will be held at the Government delegation in the European Union (Brussels). “Now it’s time to send the message that in democracy dialogue is the engine,” said the Government’s own chief.
Puigdemont remains in Belgium since September 2017 and is waiting to benefit from the application of amnesty. Illa, in an interview with Catalunya Ràdio, wanted to frame the meeting within the institutional round he has already had with the rest, although while still transcending him. “I have taken the initiative and he told me that yes,” he explained, adding that he commented to take that step with President Pedro Sánchez. Illa will have an agenda outside the visit and, in a gesture that clearly seeks to maintain institutionality, it will not move to Waterloo but the meeting will be in the Generalitat delegation in the European capital.
The meeting, announced by the Executive himself in a statement, will arrive four days after Illa publicly claim the effective application of this law for all leaders of the process. “In the same way that we respect the Judiciary, the judicial power has to respect the decisions of the Legislative Power. I would like the political course that we start now to see the effective and complete application of the Amnesty Law, a decision made by whom it corresponds to it, which is the legislative power,” the president had assured last Friday, during a workplace of the start of the course with his advisors in Arnes (Tarragona).
The, has insisted the presidentwhich has also confessed that he would like the meeting with Puigdemont would have been “months ago” and in the same hall of the Palau de la Generalitat where he has granted the interview with the Catalan National Radio. Sources from the Catalan Executive add that the meeting in Brussels is important for the “political normalization” that both Salvador Illa and the president of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, have promoted in Catalonia after the turbulence of the turbulence of the processwhich lived their maximum in 2017, with the illegal referendum and the subsequent imprisonment and flight of different leaders of the independence movement.
Junts Per Catalunya has claimed the meeting with Illa repeatedly since almost 13 months ago the socialist leader assumed the presidency of the Generalitat. On the previous trips of the Catalan president to Brussels even though Illa met with other former presidents of the Generalitat in Barcelona. Junts considered this situation unsustainable, since they remember that Puigdemont is the only one of the former presidents who still have first level responsibilities. In addition to being president of Junts, Puigdemont is a deputy in the Parliament. For this reason, the Secretary General of Junts, Jordi Turull, said this morning in RAC1 that the meeting “is late” and has assured that it is a meeting requested by the current president of the Generalitat. However, during the last months, Junts has repeatedly complained that neither Illa nor Sánchez has met with Puigdemont and demanded that the socialists make visible the “political amnesty” to the former Catalan president. The meeting seeks, in some way, alleviate this situation.
Junts Per Catalunya has several negotiations open with the Socialist Party at the national level, but maintains its opposition line to the Government of Salvador Illa in Catalonia. In this area it is pending to continue promoting the official of Catalan in Europe and the transfer of the competencies on immigration to the Generalitat. On the Catalan level, Illa seeks support to approve the Budget Law, but socialist sources are almost discarded that these supports can reach the hand of Junts.
The president of ERC, Oriol Junqueras, also pending the application of the amnesty, has valued the announcement of the meeting in an interview in being Catalonia. “We celebrate that they meet, but the important thing is that everyone gets to work by our side to solve the problems of Catalonia, such as or trains,” said Junqueras.
From the Government, Vice President Yolanda Díaz, who in to see the expressor when the investiture of Sánchez was negotiated, has framed the meeting within a process of “democratic normalization.” “What is not normal for the PP not wanting to meet with a vice president to talk about labor relations in Spain,” Diaz said in a reference also to the popular ones have canceled their meeting to talk about the reduction of day, which must undergo a first vote in Congress soon, he reports Paula Chouza.
