President Pere Aragonès wants to convene the party table at the beginning of 2024 to begin debating the “clarity agreement for the resolution of the political conflict.” The density of the Spanish political agenda around issues that emerge from the Catalan scenario, the negotiations of the independence groups with Pedro Sánchez and, above all, the meeting that the presidents of the Government and the Generalitat will hold this Thursday the 21st have advised moving the table Catalan next January or February, according to Presidency sources.
After the presentation last October of the experts’ report on the clarity agreement – five possible agreed referendums are proposed, on independence or a new fit for Catalonia, and alternative ways to the referendum – Aragonès indicated that his intention was to convene the table and open the debate once Sánchez’s investiture has passed (November 16). The president, who already indicated that among the proposals he opts for a “Scottish-style” referendum, understands that the context of recent months advises clearing the calendar. The aim is for the meeting to be profitable, as indicated in the Presidency, . “The most important thing is to open the debate and start the path, this will not be an issue that is agreed upon in three months,” he points out.
With a minority of ERC in the Parliament, the Government is aware that for the table to have a run, the participation of the PSC and Junts is essential. The cards that each party plays, especially after Sánchez’s investiture, have changed, the communicating vessels between Spanish and Catalan politics are many and diverse, and we are beginning to look at the next Catalan electoral horizon. The first secretary of the Catalan socialists, Salvador Illa, indicated this week that he requests a party table that also addresses “the specific problems of Catalan citizens” – education, drought, energy – and indicated that the forum promoted by the president does not can focus only on a referendum.
Along these lines, at this time the Catalan socialists choose not to attend the Catalan table if the agenda is strictly adhered to the clarity agreement at a time when a strategy has been drawn up focused on the control of “things to eat”. That is, on the main social problems, which will be the focus of the congress that the PSC will hold in March.
But the Generalitat emphasizes that the party table based on the clarity report should not be mixed with other issues that already have their meeting forums. The work of the experts presents an open range of avenues and, the Government reminds us, that each party is free to make its proposals, so it would not be understood that the debate cannot start. “We want to hear your proposals,” it is stated. The interaction with the debates in the Spanish Government and in the Congress of Deputies will be constant in the coming months, and for this reason the Catalan Executive considers that the call for the Catalan table can no longer be “eternal”.
The plenary session held this week in the Parliament revealed the opposition’s strategies, with a harsh attack on the “management” of the ERC Government, in the context of the poor results of the PISA report in Catalonia. There were hardly any mentions of the national debate, and there were many issues around education and the drought. The Government tries to downplay this line of attack and reminds itself that the electoral horizon is far away. Beyond a year, it is emphasized.
The point of reference for navigating this final stretch of December in the Generalitat is the meeting between the president and the head of the Executive, which will be held in Barcelona. And where the path proposed by the president of working towards a clarity agreement will be on the table.
A meeting that takes place after the prominence that Junts and former president Carles Puigdemont have had on the stage of Spanish governance. Precisely, the committees put on the table this week a formal meeting between Sánchez and Puigdemont, while the President of the Government indicated that the meeting with Aragonès is on his agenda.
Another of the fundamental issues – apart from the budget negotiation in Catalonia – that will be put on the table next 2024 with communicating vessels in Madrid will be the debate on regional financing. Here there may be a simpler shared debate scenario between the Catalan formations. The independentists want a bilateral agreement, while the PSC is committed to the context of a general debate on autonomies, but Catalan socialism is willing to enter in depth outside the strategies of each formation.