Pedro Sánchez and Carles Puigdemont were separated by just a few steps this Wednesday in the chamber of the European Parliament in Strasbourg. There were messages exchanged from the stands, but they did not greet each other. Since August 2017, the two leaders had not been so close. It is possible that in the coming weeks, however, the situation will be repeated in different circumstances and that there will be a formal meeting between the two. It was revealed yesterday by the general secretary of Junts per Catalunya, Jordi Turull, who assures that "almost a month ago" a meeting was agreed "properly" between both leaders, although he did not set a date or place for the meeting.
Sánchez himself, however, yesterday avoided confirming this meeting with Puigdemont, although without rejecting it, assuring that it is not yet on the agenda. “What I have is a meeting with the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, as a consequence of the visit we are going to make to the inauguration of the supercomputer in Barcelona,” alleged the head of the Executive yesterday upon his arrival at the meeting of the European Council. in Brussels, in reference to his meeting with Aragonès scheduled for next Thursday, December 21.
"What we have agreed is that there should be a proper meeting for as long as it takes for the two presidents to speak," Turull said in any case in an interview on Cafè d'idees on TVE and Ràdio 4. "They will meet and They will hold a meeting to talk about the negotiation and delve deeper into the resolution of the political conflict,” he added.
At Moncloa, however, they replied that “for now there is nothing.” And despite the constant attempt not to snub his most difficult investiture ally, Sánchez's reference to his meeting with Aragonès was significant. It must be taken into account that after Sánchez's investiture, the initial meeting of the negotiation space with international verification of JxCat and PSOE was held first in Geneva, and that the announcement of the Sánchez-Aragonès meeting came out just before the meeting in Switzerland .
With this in mind, no one is aware that there is some competition between the two sovereignist formations, and that the socialists, for their part, are trying to strike a balance between the two former partners of the Government of the Generalitat.
In any case, on Wednesday there was no greeting between them despite the fact that Moncloa had assured that if the President of the Government crossed paths with the former Catalan president in the European Parliament there would be total normality and cordiality.
Thus, Puigdemont avoided greeting the head of the central Executive and the minister José Manuel Albares, whom a few weeks ago he thanked for his efforts to make Catalan official in Europe. Other Spanish MEPs, such as Jordi Solé, from Esquerra, despite being critical of Sánchez, however, did greet him.
But if Puigdemont had extended his hand to the President of the Government, parallels would have easily been drawn with what the President of ERC, Oriol Junqueras, did in the Congress of Deputies in the spring of 2019, in the constitutive session, when he was imprisoned awaiting sentencing and was able to go to the plenary session of the Lower House.
In Junts they considered that a similar photo or a greeting would have no value, no matter how much in his speech Sánchez pointed out that the threat to democracy in Spain is not the former president, but the PP's pacts with Vox, coincidentally when the chamber was filled because right after there was a vote.
In the post-convergent formation they believe that only a meeting in which Puigdemont is recognized as a political interlocutor and is treated like any other leader of a formation is relevant. This is especially the case due to the statements made by the President of the Government in recent years, especially in the electoral context, in which he spoke out in favor of the independence leader being arrested and extradited to Spain.
In that sense, Turull pointed out yesterday that “all this is not about photographs, it is about resolving a political conflict.” In RAC1 he later said that, in fact, the meeting could have been held on Wednesday in Strasbourg, but “Sánchez had to leave and it was not possible.” The head of the central Executive appeared on Wednesday in the Community Chamber to take stock of the rotating Spanish presidency of the EU Council and then traveled to Brussels for the European Union-Western Balkans summit and the meeting of the European Council.
“We didn't want to make a photo show, and what needs to be done is a proper meeting,” justified the post-convergent leader, who added that what was agreed upon is that there be an interview “for as long as it takes for the two to talk.” presidents.” “We have set out to find the date and place for them to meet. The important thing is that they meet and talk, in a proper meeting, without photographs or party logos,” he insisted.
What Turull made clear is that in this meeting between Sánchez and Puigdemont there will be no verification. “The two of them will be there, it is about normalizing a relationship and negotiations between the two presidents that since 2017, as a result of repression, has not been possible,” concluded the leader of the post-convergent formation.
When the de facto leader of Junts was president of the Generalitat, he met Sánchez three times, twice in private and once in public. The last one was in August 2017, the day before the tribute to the victims of the attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils, at a discreet lunch.
