CAMILO S. BAQUERO – Barcelona – 08 JULY 2021
The presidents of Junts parliamentary groups, Albert Batet (left) and PSC, Salvador Illa (right) in the Catalan Chamber. MASSIMILIANO MINOCRI / EL PAÍS
The independence movement defends that the proposal to the Government is already closed and is self-determination and amnesty.
There will be no table between Catalan parties in Catalonia, as the PSC intended. The independentists, Vox and the PP have voted against the initiative that has been put to a vote this Thursday in Parliament. The secessionists have argued that they already have a proposal to solve the political conflict (amnesty and the agreed independence referendum), while conservatives and the extreme right consider that this forum is a trap and that the Chamber is already in place to reach agreements . The socialists and the Comúns have been left alone defending the proposal,
The PSC was trying to reissue the table set up by its former head of ranks in the Parliament, Miquel Iceta, and which in 2018 was accepted by the then president, Quim Torra. At that time, Junts and ERC voted in favor of this forum, which advocated a dialogue “from the inside.” The proposal came after the launch of the dialogue table with the central government and it only met a couple of times.
That body, however, did not prosper due to the refusal of the CUP and the right to participate. The idea was later rescued by Salvador Illa and this Thursday the spokesperson Alícia Romero defended it. The motion sought to urge the Catalan Executive to convene the presidencies of the parliamentary groups “with the aim of building a space for dialogue to facilitate agreements on major country issues” –
“It seems to us that when you speak of 52% [of the independence vote] you are forgetting 48%, and if you speak of 48% you are forgetting 52%. It would be good to find the areas and concerns that affect us 75% or the 90% ”, said Romero. The PSC spokesperson has assured that there is a conflict between the Catalans but in the face of the difference on how to solve the territorial laceration, and she has defended that the recipe for amnesty and self-determination proposed by the Government cannot be imposed.
The toughest opposition has come from the Republican ranks. According to deputy Ernest Maragall, the PSC’s proposal aims to “dispense with the democratic evidence” of the majority in the Chamber. The ex-socialist has directly addressed Romero: “it is up to him to decide whether he wants to act as an active part of political Catalanism, sharing the great consensus of amnesty and self-determination, or he prefers to continue obeying the voice of his master, acting as delegates of the State in Catalonia ”.
Romero has responded to the Republican that she cannot distribute cards of “good or bad Catalans” and that the PSC has always defended self-government, financing and language and other great consensuses in Catalonia. “Why in 2018 they supported the table and now they don’t?” She added.
Junts deputy, Mònica Sales, has argued that there are already other mechanisms, such as the Bilateral Commission, to talk about major pending issues in Catalonia, beyond the political conflict. “You already know that before each of these meetings [of the commission] there will be interaction with each of the parliamentary groups,” she added. “Great consensus, yes, but inseparable from the also great consensus around self-determination, amnesty and the independent State,” she added.
The CUP believes that the PSC only seeks to “wash its conscience” with the presentation of the motion, said its representative, Dolors Sabater. In Ciudadanos, who has abstained, the deputy Nacho Martín Blanco has criticized the socialists assuming “dogmas of the secessionist parties” and has asked them that in that forum, if it is held, issues such as linguistic immersion will be discussed. Only the spokesman for the commons, David Cid, has supported the PSC and has ensured that a “powerful Catalan alliance” is an effective formula against “the centralist proposal of the Popular Party or Isabel Díaz Ayuso.”
Vox, for its part, has criticized that now the Socialists seek them for this table while at the beginning of the legislature they made the flag of the sanitary cordon against the party presided over by Ignacio Garriga in Catalonia. Despite being open to dialogue, the deputy Joan Garriga has said that “it is not possible to mediate on a crime.” Finally, the PP criticizes that a new table contributes to creating more “phantasmagoric and opaque artifacts”. “If what you want is to repeat the same thing outside the light and stenographers here in Catalonia, emulating what Sánchez is doing for the whole of Spain, I’m sorry, but we will not be able to support him,” said the leader of the popular ranks, Alejando Fernandez.
Add comment