If the big mistake of the 1-O, according to ERC, is that it “lacked internal legitimacy”, now Pere Aragonès is looking for a referendum that has the greatest possible consensus in Catalonia. The president’s way is that of the agreement of clarity, with which he aims to set the conditions of a referendum, first in Catalonia, to communicate them to Moncloa at the beginning of 2024. To this end, yesterday he activated the process to forge a Catalan referendum proposal that will lead him to convene a table of parties in June, after the municipal elections.
Aragonès announced it in his speech on December 26, Saint Stephen’s Day: “2023 must be the year to give shape to the Catalan proposal for a clarity agreement”. He did not allude once to Pedro Sánchez or la Moncloa, and he did address the sovereignist parties on multiple occasions. Yesterday the head of the Government confirmed his intention to launch the project.
“The conflict with the State has been blocked for too long. We will only move forward with new proposals aimed at the whole country”, added Aragonès yesterday.
But the clarity agreement is a bet with which the president, and, by extension, ERC, can lick their fingers. Before he can bring his self-deterministic idea to the Moncloa table. The PSOE Government rejected any possibility of a referendum being held in Catalonia, from the very moment that Aragonès announced his clarity agreement plan to Parliament in September. But, in fact, Parliament rejected that same month, in a vote, the commons’ proposal to go ahead with the option. It also obtained the endorsement of ERC.
All in all, the Government’s idea is the one supported by Esquerra in its political report, approved in January: “The greater the consensus, the more strength we will have to defend Catalonia’s position before the State. The greater the consensus, the more strength and legitimacy we will have in the eyes of the international community.” And beyond the parties, if it fails, the Government could offset the debate on the clarity agreement with the other two areas to which the initiative opens: to all civil society, platforms, entities and associations, on the one hand, and , on the other, even to unorganized citizens.
In any case, yesterday the Catalan teams showed that their positions had not changed at all. The PSC made it clear that it does not share the debate: “Energies should be devoted to other things, with divisive proposals they will not find us”. Junts also charged against the president. He described the initiative as a “flight forward” and said that it gives off a “tuff of electoralism”. Despite this, Josep Rius, spokesman for the post-convergents, assured that their formation will be on the table of parties that Aragonès raises in June. Even so, he demanded a table made up only of independentists.
The CUP warned that it will only participate in the appointment of the clarity agreement if it seeks “consensus on how to move forward” towards independence. The commons, despite agreeing with an idea they defended long before the Government, saw the need for the Catalan Executive to cover up the drought crisis. Cs and PP rejected the proposal outright.
The sequence of the Catalan process of drawing up the clarity agreement is circular, beginning and ending with the Government. First, he will soon make public a series of questions (“around half a dozenâ€) that he will ask an academic council, made up of personalities from social and legal sciences from different universities in Catalonia, to deliberate and draw up a first-of-its-kind report this month ‘April.
Then, it will be the turn of the social debate. There are three spheres here: the table of parties that the Government intends to convene in June; the sectoral debate, which needs time to articulate itself, but which will begin to form in parallel with the activity of the parties and which would encompass an infinite number of social and cultural entities, in addition to platforms and other associations, and a final area, that of the debate on unorganized citizenship.
The Catalan Executive foresees that the last one can take place after the summer in eight circles of 100 people each chosen “by lottery”, which coincide with the eight vegueries that make up Catalonia (Metropolitan area – with capital in Barcelona – Alt Pyrenees and Aran, Camp de Tarragona, Central Regions, Girona Regions, Ponent, Terres de l’Ebre and Penedès).
Once this whole process is finished, a final final report with the conclusions would be created, with which the issue of the clarity agreement would land again with the Government so that it can send it to the State Government at the beginning of 2024 Mani qui mani in Moncloa.
