The commitment that the dialogue table between the Spanish and Catalan governments meet again before the end of 2022 will not be fulfilled. Until today the Government did not throw in the towel, but today from the Palau de la Generalitat they already admit that there will not be another meeting. Sources from the Executive of Pere Aragonès hold Moncloa responsible for non-compliance and attribute their decision to the fact that the Government of Pedro Sánchez "has been stressed by everything that has happened in Madrid as a result of the reform of the Penal Code", which has implied the repeal of the crime of sedition and the redrawing of that of embezzlement and a disparity of bickering and disqualifications between the PSOE and the opposition, with the PP at the helm, in addition to the occasional internal conflict in the socialist ranks.
In any case, from the Government they insist that the contacts with the central Executive "will continue to advance" in the field of dejudicialization - where the pardons, the changes in the Court of Accounts and the recent reform of the Penal Code could be framed. In fact, the objective of the Generalitat is amnesty and all these agreements are simply steps that "go in that direction", according to what they say from Esquerra.
All in all, the President of the Generalitat recalled yesterday during his institutional speech on the day of Sant Esteve that he intends to open "a new stage" in which this time the axis of self-determination is mainly addressed. To do this, he called on all Catalan social, economic and political agents to build a "great consensus" that crystallizes in a clarity agreement in 2023, where the conditions are set for a referendum agreed with the State, still without a date. In the speech, Aragonès seemed to outline a transition panorama for 2023. He dedicated direct appeals to the rest of the pro-independence actors to agree on this initiative and barely issued notices to Moncloa.
Government sources insist that in recent months "it has been proven that the dialogue works". "The results are public and notorious," they reaffirm. The next meeting of the dialogue table had to be held in Barcelona. A new photo of the ministers in the Palau de la Generalitat after the agreements reached regarding de-judicialization was a photo that the Government did not want to give up, especially as a reaffirmation before other pro-independence sectors -Junts, the CUP and the ANC, for example - of the negotiation strategy that those of Oriol Junqueras have been advocating since 2018 to resolve the political conflict.
Sánchez is no longer for the job. For a few days that he has been in public, he has maintained that "the process is over" and that his strategy of "deflation" has borne fruit. In addition, this morning, the Prime Minister responded to Pere Aragonès's speech yesterday and stressed that a self-determination referendum "will not take place". "These are past debates," the head of the Spanish Executive has replied to the Republican and, by extension, to the independence movement. "They can claim what they want, but it will not happen," he concluded.
In his appearance, after the last Council of Ministers of the year, Sánchez has assessed his "reunion agenda" and has expressed confidence that "with time, patience, determination and generosity on the part of all" it will be possible to "find a point of balance that guarantees coexistence in Catalonia".
The fact that there is no new appointment for this 2022 does not mean that the contacts will not continue. The negotiating table is frozen, or at least its staging, but both from Madrid and Barcelona insist that contacts "of all kinds" will continue.
