Yesterday there was an aroma of nostalgia in the appearance of Carles Puigdemont, in a hotel in the European quarter of Brussels, to announce the conditions for Junts to support a hypothetical investiture of Pedro Sánchez as president and avoid the repetition of the elections of 23-J.
Almost six years have passed since the referendum on 1-O, the images of police repression and the arrival of President Carles Puigdemont and some of his advisers in Brussels turned the Catalan political conflict into the “internal affair” more European that is remembered in the community capital. It was and still is an unusual situation. But some time ago the focus of the international press shifted to other topical issues.
The passage of time, the entanglement of the judicial battle of independence and the pacification – through pardons – of the situation in Spain have made Puigdemont and his former advisers, MEPs since 2019, part of the picturesque political landscape of Brussels· the Apart from specific controversies, such as the one that took place yesterday, when the European Parliament forced them to withdraw in extremis a photo of the 1-O ballot boxes from an exhibition about Catalonia’s contributions to Europe because it was not in the dossier they submitted when they requested authorization for the exhibition, they barely attract the attention of the media, except for their press conferences when sentences are handed down on their cases.
The situation created by the election result has once again placed Brussels and the former president in the spotlight, but of Spanish politics, not European politics. Yesterday’s press call, at eleven in the morning, aroused great interest, but mainly among the national media. The appointment had nothing to do with the tumultuous press conference that Puigdemont and his former advisers staged at the Press Club in Brussels in 2017. Yesterday there were hardly any foreign journalists to whom it was possible to explain, as he wanted to do around Puigdemont, that when we talk about amnesty it is not about solving the personal situation of a handful of high officials, but about the future of hundreds of people.
Yesterday’s meeting gave rise to a rare image of unity in the pro-independence movement. They were there to accompany the former president, who received a standing ovation, the leadership of JxCat (Laura Borràs, Jordi Turull, Albert Batet, Anna Erra and Josep Rius, among others), representatives of ERC, the CUP and sovereignist entities, in addition to Toni Comín, Clara Ponsatí and Lluís Puig. “It’s an anomalous situation” that they all had to come to Brussels because of the “repression” of independence, Teresa Jordà, ERC spokesperson for the investiture negotiations, complained to the press, while several Spaniards with bags from the European People’s Party passing by shouting “refugees” or “in prison”.
The recognition of the Catalan political conflict that Puigdemont is asking for also involves gestures like the one made on Monday by the leader of Sumar and vice-president of the Spanish Government, Yolanda Díaz, when she went to Brussels to discuss the conditions for the investiture. “Clear” that there will be more meetings, said Díaz. Like it or not, whether it’s viable or not, the way out of the Spanish political labyrinth goes through Brussels.
At four in the afternoon, Pedro Sánchez had a business call with the president of the European Council, the Belgian Charles Michel. On the agenda, the summits to be held in October under the Spanish presidency. Michel was aware, through the press, of what Puigdemont had raised, but he only spoke about the Spanish political situation with Sánchez in passing, at the beginning of the conversation. It’s “an internal matter”, they say in Brussels, where the only concern right now is that, whatever is said, it doesn’t affect the presidency.
