The president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, sees in the approval in Congress of the elimination of sedition and the reform of embezzlement, together with the granting of pardons last year, the end of a stage at the dialogue table to reduce the repressive capacity of certain State apparatuses and calls for the opening of another to address the underlying issue, that is, the relationship between Catalonia and Spain. In this sense, as is already known, Aragonès is committed to a "clarity agreement" that sets the conditions for holding a referendum agreed between the parties and for which he calls for reforming the Constitution if necessary, while avoiding defending the unilaterally, as the president of his party, Oriol Junqueras, has done this week.
"If this is the problem, let's address it," the president responded when asked in La Ser if it is possible to hold an agreed referendum without amending the Constitution. For Aragonès, holding a referendum is a matter of "political will" and he explained that his bet is to first reach prior agreements with the central Executive, instead of raising them directly in Las Cortes or in Parliament, and from it "build the legal path".
The president has indicated that the first phase of the dialogue and negotiation table has served to "reduce the repressive capacity of certain State apparatuses" and has justified this work to allow a "dialogue on equal terms" and "a climate of trust " that without the reforms that are now in the Senate could have been destroyed "in a very short time".
"Now we have to address the underlying issue, the relationship between Catalonia and Spain, which is the conflict that reached its maximum peak in 2017," said Aragonès, who has proposed talking about all the options (referendum, maintaining the status quo or reforming the Statute) and enter into a dynamic of dialogue and negotiation that is "what has to be done in politics when there are opposing positions".
In any case, the president of the Generalitat has recognized that this issue has not yet been discussed at the dialogue table but has warned that this is the nature of the conflict. "We must enter into the causes, there are different positions and they can all be legitimate," admitted the Republican leader, who also warned that "advancing in the political conflict" is what led Esquerra to facilitate the investiture of Pedro Sánchez.
However, Aragonès has avoided defending the unilateral path that the leader of Esquerra, Oriol Junqueras, refused to rule out this week. "I have a responsibility and this process that we have started and which has led to improvements must continue, so I must be very prudent", argued the president, in whose opinion "the best thing that can happen is that there is an agreed referendum". And explicitly and repeatedly asked about the question of unilateralism, Aragonès has refused to enter into "alternative scenarios because I believe that at this moment they are not on the table nor does speculating with them help to move from a conflict that was in a very complicated now that important steps have been taken".
Last Monday, ERC announced the political paper that it has finalized and that will be approved at the end of January and that contemplates a minimum of 50% participation and 55% support for yes to independence as conditions for a referendum agreed to be validated and for the secession to be effective.
