The Delegation of the Government of the Generalitat in Madrid cannot remember the last time a minister attended the celebration of Catalonia Day in the Spanish capital. Yesterday, a decade after a handful of Falangists staged the same event at the Blanquerna bookstore, the Council of Ministers was represented at the highest level: Vice President Yolanda Díaz. Socialist senator Eva Granados was also there.
The leader of Sumar, who was photographed a week ago with former president Carles Puigdemont in Brussels, now also has the snapshot with ERC. It was after toasting with cava with the new Government delegate, Joan Capdevila, “to the bright future” that – he hopes – must come.
Representatives from the Catalan political, business and trade union world gathered in the delegation’s gardens. After the compromise questions about how the holidays went, the small groups of some and others came together with the same common denominator: taking the pulse on the negotiations to re-edit the progressive coalition. In the courtyard, no one dared to pronounce – for this reason to call out the bad weather – the specter of the electoral repeat.
The councilor of the Presidency, Laura Vilagrà, who had breakfast in Brussels, had lunch at the Congress of Deputies, and had a glass of cava at Alcalá 44, explained that ERC has put on the table three folders that must ‘open if Pedro Sánchez wants to have the Republican votes. “That should not be taken for granted”, he warned.
The first of the folders, which bears the name of amnesty, bears the notice that the law can – and should – be processed before the investiture of the socialist candidate. The second: self-determination. As Vilagrà acknowledged yesterday, this “wasn’t open until now”. “It’s complex, but we want to open up this aspect.” The third – that of social welfare – includes the demand for more financial resources.
