The criticisms of Alberto Núñez Feijóo, president of the PP, to the coordinator of the mediation and verification in the negotiation that opened this weekend in Switzerland the PSOE and Junts per Catalunya, the Salvadoran diplomat Francisco Galindo Vélez, “are very close to xenophobia”. This is the position that the post-convergent formation defended yesterday.
The popular leader pointed out on Sunday that it is an “unbearable humiliation” that “a Salvadoran expert in guerrillas” plays this role and the post-convergents reply that “disqualifying” a person because of their origin “is xenophobia”. “They seem to us to be unfortunate demonstrations,” said the spokesman and vice-president of Junts, Josep Rius, at a press conference yesterday.
“We regret the reaction and the statements of the PP, they come very close to xenophobia. It is normal for them to be bothered by the meeting in Switzerland because it internationalizes the conflict, but to disqualify because of origin is xenophobia”, concluded the also post-convergence deputy, who in his intervention before the press highlighted the negotiation forum between his party and the socialists, while he labeled as “sterile” the dialogue table that the republicans agreed with the PSOE in the previous legislature.
“From Junts we can see that more progress has been made this past month than in previous years”, summarized Rius, who justified these statements by the fact that there is “an effective negotiation framework in Switzerland with an international verification mechanism and is in the process of recognizing the official status of Catalan in Europe”. To these aspects he added others in relation to the Congress of Deputies, such as the processing of the amnesty law or the launch of two commissions of inquiry, one relating to Operation Catalonia and the State sewers and another on the August 2017 attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils.
In any case, regarding the negotiation, the JxCat spokesperson avoided giving more details and reiterated that there must be discretion for the talks to bear fruit. What Rius did point out is that “the legislature will move forward” in the Lower House as long as they see from their space that “there is progress” in this forum. Regarding the figure who will coordinate the verification, Galindo Vélez, those of Carles Puigdemont emphasize that he is “a renowned specialist in conflict resolution”.
This same thread, regarding the reaction of the PP to the role of the Salvadoran diplomat, was also discussed yesterday by the PSC and the commons in several appearances. The Catalan socialists guaranteed that the PSOE will “comply with all the agreements” that have been agreed with Junts and ERC, but they demand patience and discretion so that progress can be made. And with regard to Feijóo’s words, spokeswoman Elia Tortolero called them “unfortunate” and sent a piece of advice to the leader of the PP: “Instead of making such unfortunate statements, what he should do is start work to renew the General Council of the Judiciary”.
Like Junts, Catalunya en Comú also considered Feijóo’s words “racist, xenophobic and classist”. According to the spokesperson of the formation, Joan Mena, they are “an irresponsibility for someone who said he came to politics as a moderate”, and he accused the leader of the opposition of overcoming the extreme right with this type of speech.