“Catalonia has opened a new path of progress, understanding and coexistence,” Pedro Sánchez celebrated on the occasion of the celebration of the Diada. “It is time to look to the future and continue moving forward,” said the acting President of the Government. And the leadership of the PSOE, which this Monday met with the Ferraz executive with the perspective of negotiations for the investiture with Junts and ERC, has insisted that, despite being “at the opposite end” of Carles’ latest pronouncements Puigdemont and Pere Aragonès, there is room for agreement. “There is space for dialogue and meeting within the constitutional limits,” said Minister María Jesús Montero, deputy secretary general of the PSOE.
However, he has warned that both Puigdemont and Aragonès use their “maximum positions” as a starting point for negotiations. And especially on a day like the Diada de Catalunya in which the independence movement squeezes all its “liturgy and paraphernalia”, as highlighted by Ferraz.
“Any adjustment to the conflict in Catalonia depends on the constitutional adjustment,” reiterated Montero, who did not want to delve into the possible negotiations with the Catalan independence movement to face the inauguration of Pedro Sánchez, nor even in assuming a future amnesty law, accepting to the imperative need for “discretion, caution, prudence and secrecy” so that the open path of dialogue does not derail before an agreement can be reached.
The deputy secretary general of the PSOE has assured that this Diada is the best opportunity to “reclaim coexistence and reunion.” “We are in favor of building bridges and not digging trenches,” Montero assured, to advance on the path of dialogue and, in reference to the position of the Popular Party and the ultra-right of Vox, “to flee from those attitudes and behaviors that scare away any approximation and attempt to find a solution through dialogue to the serious incidents that occurred in Catalonia” in 2017.
Montero has assured that the PSOE “will continue with its discreet conversations” with the independence movement. Although he has insisted that these negotiations will remain under the radar until it is determined whether an agreement is possible or not. Although Sánchez himself trusted that there will be an agreement for his investiture, Ferraz assumes the complexity of the challenge: “It is not easy, nor are we far enough,” they acknowledge. But no one is throwing in the towel, at least for now.
The recent warnings against an amnesty for those accused of the process by Felipe González and Alfonso Guerra, among other socialist veterans of greater or lesser reference still in the party, do not in any case worry the leadership of the PSOE. This matter, in fact, was not even discussed today at the executive meeting. María Jesús Montero has later naturally assumed the existence of these “dissonant voices” among the ranks of a “diverse and plural” party. But the Sevillian minister has also replied, ironically paraphrasing her countryman Alfonso Guerra, to these former leaders. “In this PSOE, whoever moves does appear in the photo,” she warned.
It is worth remembering that it was the former vice president of the Government and former deputy general secretary of the PSOE who, during his mandate, warned against internal divergences in the organization: “He who moves does not appear in the photo.”
María Jesús Montero has affirmed that the entire PSOE has full confidence in Pedro Sánchez before his new investiture attempt, and that the party leadership feels fully supported by the socialist militancy. “Pedro Sánchez knows that he has the entire party behind him,” she concluded.
