The former president of the Generalitat Carles Puigdemont has defined the “prior” conditions to start negotiating the investiture of the new president of the Government, but he has also set the framework in which the negotiation itself should move. But from his conference from Brussels, some political references about the State, the judiciary, the two main political parties (PP and PSOE), and even about his struggle with ERC are also noteworthy.
1- Spanish politics, between the blockade or the chronicification of the confrontation. In his initial analysis of the Spanish political situation, Puigdemont notes that “the right-wing candidate (Feijóo) does not seem to have enough support to be chosen,” just as “neither does the current president nor the bloc of his parliamentary partners from the last four years”, therefore, Spain faces one of “its dilemmas that it does not always resolve well”: “Either it lives in the blockade or makes a pact.” In this sense, he gives as an example of the deficits of pacts in the State what happened with the judicial power.
2- The prominence of JxCat. The former president highlights this inability to reach an agreement between PP and PSOE, his party takes center stage. “The possible pact is not just any pact,” but a pact with a formation that, paradoxically, “has been cornered, belittled and attacked relentlessly.” And at this point he recalled the agreement between PSC and PP to invest Jaume Collboni as mayor, thus snatching the mayor’s office from Xavier Trias. Even so, Puigdemont assures that he is not motivated by “personal or partisan revenge,” and recalls the agreement with the PSOE for the formation of the Congressional Board.
3- The objective, a “historic” agreement. Puigdemont highlights the difficulty of reaching an agreement as a consequence of the enormous “mistrust” that exists with the two main state parties and the “deep distance that separates us” from a political point of view. The “enormous difficulty” of facing a negotiation that “has been neglected or considered unnecessary for six years” is increased by the desire to achieve a “historic agreement such as the one that no Spanish regime or government has been able to make a reality since 1714”.
4- The existing mistrust. The former president has emphasized that currently the conditions do not exist to reach this agreement. The backpack of mistrust has been filled by the lack of recognition by the State of a political conflict. A conflict fueled by the 2010 TC ruling against the Statute, “the criminalization” of 1-O as a response to resolving demands such as the fiscal pact or the agreed referendum; the “non-compliance with pacts” regarding investments, the application of article 155… “We are prepared in case there are elections but also for a negotiation that could culminate in a historic pact,” he assures.
5- The conditions, in advance. The former president has been clear when pointing out that the four conditions that he has defined in the framework of the dialogue for the investiture are “necessary conditions to be able to embark on the path of negotiation”, therefore they are preconditions to later enter into the matter of negotiation. These four conditions -the recognition of the conflict, the abandonment of the legal process and the amnesty, the mediation and verification mechanism and the international treaties as the only limits to negotiate- are assumable. “None of them are contrary to the Constitution or any European treaty” and “they don’t even require any lengthy legislative process.” For this reason, Puigdemont points out that “they must be able to be fulfilled before the legal term runs out to avoid electoral repetition.”
6-Two folders to negotiate: the agreed referendum and “material issues”. Once the preconditions are met, the expresident sees it as possible to start negotiating “with guarantees” and proposes two folders to work on: the right to self-determination and “material issues pending to be resolved for many decades in Catalonia. The expresident considers that “Only a referendum agreed with the State can replace the political mandate of 1-O”.As he considers that there are no constitutional impediments to prevent this referendum, he places everything in the “political will”, because “if you want, you can” .
7- Praise for Junts’ strategy. At the end of his intervention, Puigdemont vindicates the political strategy of his party against that of ERC. The former president justifies persistence in this strategy, despite “very difficult decisions”, among which he noted “remaining in exile”, not participating in the dialogue table between ERC and the central government, abandoning the Executive of Pere Aragonès, not support budgets and the reform of the Penal Code. “We understood that they were not useful to resolve the conflict, as has been demonstrated,” he justifies, in a clear message to the Republicans.