Relations between socialists and republicans are going through their best moment. This is reported by both the PSOE and ERC, who explain that in recent years they have managed to create a climate of trust that has been strengthened during the negotiations for the investiture of Pedro Sánchez. And it is in this understanding, although great substantive differences prevail, within the framework in which this Thursday at noon the President of the Government and President Pere Aragonès will meet.
The last meeting, apart from the meeting they held at the summit held in Barcelona in January of this year, corresponds to the meeting in Moncloa, in July 2022, a few days before the negotiation table between the Government and the Generalitat was held. It will, therefore, be the first time they have seen each other since Sánchez’s inauguration.
The first proof of this good harmony will be staged at the inauguration of the MareNostrum 5 supercomputer, which Sánchez and Aragonés will attend before meeting at the Palau de la Generalitat. This is an infrastructure co-financed by the European Union and a consortium of countries led by Spain.
The central executive frames the meeting in “absolute normality” to address issues of “common interest.” “Institutional collaboration at all levels is necessary to optimize resources, for the proper functioning of public services and to best meet the needs of citizens,” government sources say.
The Government does not specify the agenda or the points that will be addressed in this conclave, but they assure that in recent months there has been a change in the attitude of the Republicans, more focused now on what they call “things to eat.” .
They consider that the electoral event in Catalonia, which some voices place in November of next year, forces Aragonès to concentrate on the initiatives that are most attached to the management.
From the Government they point out that the president will demand that Sánchez make the transfer of Rodalies happen. This is one of the issues that the PSOE and ERC agreed upon for the investiture with a view to the creation of a mixed company formed by the Government and the Generalitat that Rodalies will end up assuming.
Aragonès will also put on the table the need to agree on the unique financing of Catalonia, an initiative that the Government does not want to address within the framework of the Fiscal and Financial Policy Council (CPFF) with the rest of the autonomous communities and insists on doing so bilaterally with the Sánchez executive. The Republicans also want to talk about Catalan and the resolution of the political conflict.
Government sources point out that once the new Executive has been established, now is the time to deploy the agreements and guarantee compliance. And they give as an example the amnesty law that is being processed in Congress. ERC does not rule out presenting any amendment. “In the event that some improvement can be made, we will not stop proposing it.” The intention and this would be the agreement with the PSOE is to protect it, since they do not want to leave room for attempts to adulterate the meaning of the law.