The general secretary of Junts per Catalunya, Jordi Turull, announced early this Thursday that there will be a "proper" meeting between the former president of the Generalitat Carles Puigdemont, and the president of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, but the head of the A few hours later, the Executive put this meeting on hold by assuring from Brussels that on his agenda he only has a meeting scheduled with the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, on December 21.
Turull's announcement comes after yesterday in the European Parliament in Strasbourg (France) both political leaders exchanged messages in the same physical space for the first time since the de facto leader of the independent party left Spain in 2017. Although it is not known They did not meet face to face or in the hallways, both leaders were separated by just a few meters, but there was no greeting between them despite the fact that Moncloa had assured that if they crossed paths there would be total normality and cordiality.
"All this we are doing is not about photographs, it is about resolving a political conflict," Turull said in an interview on the Cafè d'Idees program on TVE and Ràdio 4 to justify the absence yesterday of a photograph between Sánchez and Puigdemont. "What there is is that they will meet and hold a meeting as necessary to talk about the negotiation and delve deeper into the resolution of the political conflict," the independence leader announced, although he has not set a date or place for the meeting.
Puigdemont avoided greeting the head of the central Executive and Minister José Manuel Albares, whom a few weeks ago he thanked for his efforts to make Catalan official in Europe, although he had them just a few steps away. Had he reached out to him, parallels would have easily been drawn with what the president of Esquerra, Oriol Junqueras, did in the Congress of Deputies in the spring of 2019, in the constitutive session.
In Junts they considered that this photo would have no value, no matter how much in his intervention Sánchez pointed out that the threat to democracy in Spain is not the former Catalan president but the PP's pacts with Vox. The party believes that only a proper meeting, in which Puigdemont is recognized as a political interlocutor and is treated like any other leader of a party, is relevant. This is especially so due to the statements made by the President of the Government in recent years in relation to the possibility that the independence leader was arrested and extradited to Spain.
Given this announcement, Sánchez himself from Brussels, where he has traveled to participate in a summit of European Union leaders, has chilled the possibility of this meeting by telling journalists that "in my agenda, which is public and transparent, I that I have is a meeting with the president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, on December 21 on the occasion of the visit to the supercomputer. Shortly before, the Government's spokesperson minister, Pilar Alegría, had indicated in interviews on Antena 3 and TVE that she is not aware that this meeting is scheduled. "I'm not aware that this issue is scheduled, I'm not aware of it," she said.
However, Turull, who has also been interviewed in El Món to RAC1, explained on the station that the meeting had been agreed upon "almost a month ago", that the PSOE knew that it would make the announcement today and that it has told the secretary. organization of the socialists, Santos Cerdán, with whom they have been negotiating in recent weeks. He also wanted to apologize to Minister Alegría. "I do not attribute Pilar Alegría's words to bad faith, perhaps it was simply not the case," he said. He also indicated that the meeting could have been held yesterday in Strasbourg but "Sánchez had to leave and it was not possible." We didn't want to make a mess of photos and what needs to be done is a proper meeting," he justified.
"What we have agreed is that there will be a meeting as necessary for as long as it takes for the two presidents to speak," Turull had insisted early in the morning on TVE. "We have decided to find the date and place for them to meet. The important thing is that they meet and talk, in a meeting as it should be, without photographs or party logos," he had stressed.
What Turull had detailed is that in this meeting there will be no mediator as there was in the meeting in Switzerland between the PSOE and Junts. "No, no, the two of them will be in this, it is about normalizing relations and negotiations between the two presidents that since 2017, as a result of repression, has not been possible," the post-convergent leader had justified. "It is a meeting between two leaders," Turull had clarified when asked if they understood the meeting as a meeting between governments.
The general secretary of Junts had also referred to the warning that Puigdemont issued from the lectern of the European Parliament to Sánchez in relation to possible breaches of the pacts, in particular that of the official status of Catalan in the European institutions. "If there is a joke, we will end the legislature and, obviously, the seven votes of Junts take another direction," warned Turull, who with respect to the Catalan officialdom pointed out that "much more could have been done than what that has been done", although he considered that it is an issue that "will continue permanently and is irreversible", as Puigdemont said yesterday.
In another order of things, Turull has ratified the words of the Junts spokesperson in Congress, Miriam Nogueras, from last Tuesday that angered the entire judiciary yesterday and even provoked a challenge from the president of the Supreme Court, Francisco Marín Castán, to the minister. of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Courts, Félix Bolaños. "Of the Cobos, both of them, the police officer and the judge, in collaboration with Marchena, along with other indecent characters such as Espejel, Lesmes, Llarena, Lamela and many others in a normal country would be dismissed and tried immediately," said Nogueras in the full.
"They are indecent, of course they are," confirmed Turull, who explained that after saying those words in the plenary session he told his spokesperson that he had been "quite moderate" with "these people." "They demand the separation of powers when we see judges acting as political commentators and legislators," reproached the general secretary of Junts, alluding to the statements of the General Council of the Judiciary against the amnesty law before it existed or to the fact that, In his opinion, judges apply the law in a spirit different from that which inspired the legislator. "There has been a crossing of powers," denounced Turull, for whom since the King's speech on October 3 "there has been a judicial free bar for them."
Turull has also defended that Nogueras attacked specific journalists because, in his opinion, "when there are reprehensible facts, there are names and surnames behind them and we must report facts with names and surnames." A justification that for Turull is valid for both journalists and judges. "We don't point out in general," he noted.
