The former president of the Generalitat Carles Puigdemont and the second vice president of the acting Government and leader of Sumar, Yolanda Díaz, are meeting this Monday at noon in Brussels at the headquarters of the European Parliament, within the framework of the negotiations for the investiture as president of the Government of the socialist leader, Pedro Sánchez. A meeting from which Moncloa has been quick to distance itself.
The meeting, the first of a public nature between a member of the Spanish government and the leader of JxCat since he established his residence in Belgium in 2017 after the declaration of independence, takes place in the Spinelli room of the Eurochamber.
Puigdemont and Díaz are accompanied by former councilor and MEP Toni Comín and the leader of Sumar in Catalonia Jaume Asens, respectively. The four arrived at the same time and spoke in a cordial tone for a few minutes for the press before beginning their meeting behind closed doors, for which sources from both parties indicate that no duration limit has been set.
The meeting, after which there will be no statements -according to a brief statement from the office of Carles Puigdemont as the 130th president of the Generalitat- but there will be statements, takes place the day before the pro-independence MEP raises the conditions in an act in the Eurochamber to open negotiations for an investiture for which his party, unpredictable, demands as a first step an amnesty on the causes linked to the process.
Regarding this meeting, Moncloa sources have distanced the Government from it and assure that the vice president is going to Brussels on behalf of Sumar and that in no case does she represent the PSOE.
According to these sources, the Moncloa was not informed until late yesterday night as "faits accompli." "There is nothing agreed upon," they point out from Moncloa, who emphasize that they are following their own path. "Nothing to do with us," they conclude.
Sumar sources point out that "this is one more step in our determined commitment to open a new time of solutions based on dialogue and democracy" and remember that "we said it since we were born, throughout the campaign and we reaffirm it now: we are "Those of us who are thinking about solutions for the next decade, that is why this has to be a legislature of social and plurinational progress, and we are getting to work."
The same sources point out that as democrats, "we respect the citizens and carry out the conversations with total transparency, as well as the interlocutors of each party," in reference to the call sent by Sumar to take images of the meeting. These sources conclude that "in our country, social and territorial progress have always gone hand in hand," which is why Sumar is "convinced that this is how it should be again."
The number two of the PP, Cuca Gamarra, and the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, have censored the meeting. "Stop teasing the Spanish: what are you willing to do to continue in power?" Gamarra said on the X network. The general secretary of the popular ironically asked if Díaz is "part-time vice president" or " fixed-discontinuous". "A vice president is 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, and more so when she is going to negotiate her own future in the government," she has affirmed. For her part, Ayuso has called the meeting "undeserving".
The leader of Vox, Santiago Abascal, has described the meeting as "extremely serious". "Today the government of Spain is sitting with a fugitive from justice", something that "does not happen in any part of the world where the legality and dignity of citizens are respected".
In Catalonia, the meeting between Díaz and Puigdemont has had a mixed reception. From En Comú Podem, members of the vice president's party, they have justified the meeting by their willingness to "talk to everyone who needs to talk so that Spain can have a progressive and plurinational government." "In order to move forward, we must dialogue with all the political interlocutors," spokesman Joan Mena argued, who has asked President Sánchez to "act with the utmost responsibility", putting the objective of re-editing the Government first.
But from the PSC, they have marked distances. Spokesperson Èlia Tortolero commented that the meeting is "a Sumar initiative" that "does not compromise the PSC or the socialists in any way." The leader has insisted that her training "works more than explains" and that now "it is time for Feijóo to go to the investiture", therefore "let us respect the times."
Appealing to that discretion, Tortolero has not denied the possibility that the Socialists go to Brussels to meet the former president but has come to recognize that Puigdemont is the valid interlocutor for Junts to negotiate: "Each group must choose their procedures and their interlocutors. We will not tell the rest of the parties who their interlocutors should be."
