This week we talked about a photograph. Or, to be more precise, of a photograph that could not be taken. Pedro Sánchez and Carles Puigdemont were four meters apart in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, but they did not shake hands. It was the first time that the two politicians shared the same room publicly, since Puigdemont fled to Brussels. And even the pro-independence leader addressed the President of the Government of Spain from the podium, warning him that breaches of agreements bring consequences that are not pleasant and that in politics opportunities cannot be passed up for fear or incapacity.
Why does the pro-independence leader attach so much importance to a photo? Because the image, after the pact signed with the PSOE, means its definitive rehabilitation. In any case, Puigdemont does not want an improvised photo, like the one Oriol Junqueras got with Sánchez in Congress, when he took possession of his status as deputy despite being in prison. He doesn’t aspire to a selfie or a photo opportunity, he wants a snapshot of a meeting between presidents.
The two had not agreed since August 2017. Jordi Turull, general secretary of JxC, has affirmed, after speaking with Santos Cerdán, the Secretary of Organization of the PSOE who closed the pacts in Waterloo, that they had been cited to find a date. But from Moncloa they assure that there is nothing planned in the short term; in fact, it appears on Moncloa’s agenda that Sánchez will meet with President Pere Aragonès, this Thursday the 21st.
It is unlikely that the photo will be produced before the end of the year, when Spain will cede the presidency of the EU. There are those who point out that the Government would prefer to wait for the amnesty law to be approved in April, because then it would not formally be a meeting between a Prime Minister and a fugitive from justice. But Puigdemont is in more of a hurry, because he wants to show muscle in front of the country. He knows that the image is worth its weight in gold. As the photojournalist Destin Sparks said: “Photography is the story that could not be told in words.”
