The recognition of the existence of a conflict of a political nature, a space for negotiation to address it and the legitimization of independence as a political actor are cards that sovereignty already has since the PSOE-ERC pact of 2020. A the results are quite different, but at these points the contribution of Carles Puigdemont's speech is pure redundancy, no matter how much 1714 pyrotechnics he introduces in his speech in order to block the waterway that can be opened to him in the ground of credibility to renounce the self-determination referendum as a condition to facilitate the investiture of Pedro Sánchez.
So far the Republican provosts would be right when they congratulate themselves that Carles Puigdemont has finally come to his senses and embraced the virtues of negotiation and realism. And so far, but only so far, Monclovites and the PSOE have reasons to think that they already experienced this in 2020 with Sánchez's first investiture. If this is the case, they think, it is enough to repeat the scheme of seeds to achieve an identical and favorable result. Let's remember what the script was: a practical and tangible concession - the pardons - and a kick in the field of good intentions with the negotiation table. From this assimilation of past and present scenarios is born the moderate optimism of the PSOE.
But the differences are remarkable. Puigdemont presents the amnesty not as a pardon, but as a total recognition of guilt on the part of the State which forces a severe penance which for many will be equivalent to a surrender. Especially when he accompanies his demand for the threatening wedge of unilateralism that, unlike the Republicans of his day, he says he will not give up.
The trump card of unilateralism that Puigdemont has, even in the case that it responds solely to the scope of tactical verbiage, is basically the recovery of the threatening wedge that was so successful in Catalonia after the events of the October: we'll do it again. And it should be a difficult bite to swallow even for a PSOE in decline like that of Pedro Sánchez.
Pardons required a lot of initial lube and secrecy. Before its formalization, ERC made explicit its commitment to legality and recognized the lack of legitimacy of the 2017 referendum. Puigdemont's negotiation formula is the opposite. He proposes that Congress, through the amnesty, give the go-ahead to the legitimacy of everything that happened six years ago. Let the State bear the burden of blame. A bitter chalice for the PSOE. But also for the PSC and for a not inconsiderable part of the voters who have made Salvador Illa's project the great champion of the last electoral cycle in Catalonia.
The will to agree involves putting aside the differences and focusing on what makes the agreement possible. That is why the PSOE and the rest of the actors pushing in the direction of achieving it despise this substantial difference. And from here also comes the fact of insisting that this part of Puigdemont's speech should not be taken into account because it is directed solely at ERC in the logic of the internal competition between both formations.
But there is another way to approach the statements of the former president of the Generalitat. It is true that he renounces from the outset an exercise of self-determination as a condition for investing Sánchez. Only his approach, to the extent that the State assumes the blame for the events in the past, allows it to turn the 2017 referendum into a victory, this time yes: it was legal and it was legitimate. Without practical consequences of any kind at the moment, of course. But with the cover of legitimacy of the Courts so that it can be repeated so that the conventional negotiations fail and the state of mind of sovereignty - if this ever happens - is strengthened again. This is the price that for now marks the investiture: moral and political cover for the events of October 2017. A price of maximums that the logic of the market will try to lower, of course.
