Up to three meetings have been held between the PSOE and ERC around the party table with international mediation. This is the bilateral framework agreed in November between both parties in exchange for the re-election of Pedro Sánchez as President of the Government, and which has “an international mechanism that has the functions of accompanying, verifying and monitoring the entire negotiation process.” .
It is the younger sister of the dialogue table between governments that today both parties have announced that they are freezing until after the European elections, which in Spain will be on June 9.
Despite this postponement, in a joint statement the two parties clarify that “they have met discreetly and periodically in the space between parties.”
In the text, they remember that this space must serve to prepare the meetings of the dialogue table between governments. But because of the call for parliamentary elections on May 12 and the subsequent European elections on June 9, socialists and republicans have agreed to “suspend the public meeting” or staging of the table between governments. Furthermore, the PSOE and ERC consider that any appointment of this magnitude, in the middle of the electoral pre-campaign, could be interpreted as an interested act ahead of the polls.
With this decision, the commitment made between Pedro Sánchez and Pere Aragonès to meet the governments in the first quarter is not fulfilled. Even so, the PSOE and ERC insist that “all the actors involved are committed to continuous dialogue and negotiation as a way to find a political solution.”
The dialogue table between governments was launched in February 2020, with Quim Torra as president of the Generalitat. It was agreed upon by ERC in exchange for Sánchez’s investiture. After the general elections of July 23 of last year, Esquerra agreed on this parallel table between governments. Junts, in turn, agreed to a third meeting with the PSOE, which met for the fourth time last week in Switzerland.
