RELATIONS between the Spanish and Catalan governments appear to be cooling after their honeymoon period and as the November deadline approaches for Pedro Sanchez to offer a dialogue on self-determination.
Catalan president Quim Torra set the deadline earlier this month, warning he could not guarantee the support of pro-independence members in Spain’s Congress of Deputies, who had united behind Sanchez to oust former PM Mariano Rajoy in June.
Withdrawal of support could pose problems for Sanchez when it comes to approval for his budget, which would see a modest increase in social spending and the raising of some taxes.
Catalan government spokesperson, Elsa Artadi, said yesterday there was no way to resolve the conflict politically: “We have less hope than we had at the beginning. It’s time and there is no offer.
“We will continue to fight for dialogue and negotiation. It is always our obligation, but no response is being given.”
Socialist (PSOE) leader Sanchez, in the Senate, said that those in favour of the Catalan state had carried out “undemocratic” actions and the declaration of independence had been “imposed on all Catalans”.
In response to Quim Ayats, a member of the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), he said there was no social majority for independence, adding: “How many more non-referendums should be made ... Another illegal referendum? … [the] priority is not independence, it is coexistence.”
This ill-feeling does not relate solely to Torra’s republican aspirations, or to Sanchez’s veiled threat to re-impose direct rule – as Rajoy did following last year’s Catalan declaration of independence. It also hinges on the fate of the nine pro-independence figures who have been in jail for more than a year awaiting trial for their part in last October’s referendum.
Sanchez has dismissed their fate as a matter for the judiciary, but pressure is mounting on him to reconsider.
Pablo Iglesias, leader of the left-wing Podemos, said: “Now it is time for the Spanish government to make a gesture.”
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