The Minister of the Presidency, Relations with the Courts and Democratic Memory, Félix Bolaños, has taken another step in the Government’s attempts to discredit the proposal for a clarity agreement by the President of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, and has branded it as a “trap ” and of an “electoralist” and “unilateral” proposal after insisting that it is a formula that “looks to the past” and that, in his opinion, makes us “face one another.”
In an interview on the Cafè d’Idees program on La 2 and Rà dio 4, Bolaños justified that the PSC not go to the meeting that Aragonès will convene in June to discuss the formulation of the clarity agreement to establish the conditions that allow the call of a referendum in Catalonia that it is “an obvious trap”. “What he is doing is an electoral proposal just a few weeks before local elections in Catalonia and an absolutely unilateral proposal that has not spoken to anyone,” criticized the minister, who has insisted that it is a formula that “looks to the past “, that is to say “to the confrontation and to formulas that chronicle the conflict”.
On the contrary, the head of the Presidency has valued the “dialogue between different people” to overcome a situation that, in his opinion, “brought Catalonia to the brink of the precipice due to the irresponsibility of some”. “With a lot of work we have managed to get Catalonia to overcome a lost decade”, Bolaños insisted to highlight the “courage” of the Government’s policy and especially of President Pedro Sánchez.
Asked if the conflict is still going on, Bolaños has even described the people who defend a referendum in Catalonia, which according to surveys is a majority sector, as “isolationists”. “There are people in Catalonia who want there to be a referendum, or for Catalonia to be an independent territory from Spain, from the European Union and probably from the world, that is, they are not only pro-independence, they are isolationists, they want an isolated Catalonia, and there are other people who think differently”, pointed out the minister.
Without mentioning it, however, the minister has also recognized the merit of Aragonès by indicating that “the easy thing is to meet with those who think as one” and that since 2017 things have changed in Catalan politics. “I highly value the people who have not stopped the clock in 2017”, Bolaños admitted to contrast the attitude of the current tenant of the Plaza de Sant Jaume with that of his predecessor Carles Puigdemont, who, in his opinion , is “precisely one of those whose clock stopped in 2017”.
Regarding the future of Puigdemont, Bolaños pointed out that he does not know what the current MEP has in mind but has considered that “every day he sees himself further from Catalonia politically and personally” and has ordered him to return to Spain and be accountable to justice.
In another order of things, Bolaños has accused United We Can of having been “caught up in technicalities” in the modification of the law of only yes is yes and has guaranteed consent. “There is an article in the Law that talks about consent, and it is not touched. With which, consent is where it was before the reform”, defended the minister, who has justified the reform of the norm in that this “was interpretable”. “When applying it, the courts have had different positions. More or less two-thirds have considered that sentences should not be lowered and one that yes”, while insisting that now “women are clearly much more protected” with the new wording , which, in his opinion, will guarantee that there are no more reductions in sentences for sexual offenders.
Bolaños also referred to the CIS barometer for April published yesterday, which highlighted that the PSOE is strong throughout Spain and has minimized the vote that Sumar could steal from the Socialists, while congratulating himself on the fact that it is reordering the space to the left of the PSOE. “We would like our left to understand each other,” said the head of the Presidency, knowing that to continue in La Moncloa next year Pedro Sánchez will need this space.
And about the influence that Pablo Iglesias can exert on this political space, Bolaños has blurted out that the former vice president of the Government “is out of politics” and has confessed that he feels “more comfortable talking about people who are part of the political board”.
Bolaños has also described Vox as “a scourge for Spain” after assuring that he has never picked up the phone and has never wanted to meet with him.
