Sánchez and Aragonès agree to advance in overcoming the Catalan crisis through dialogue and will meet at La Moncloa this month

The dialogue between the Government and the Generalitat recovers after the Catalan elections. The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, held a telephone conversation this Friday with the

of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Pere Aragonès, in which they agreed on the need for dialogue to overcome "common challenges" and have agreed to meet in La Moncloa during this month, according to sources from the Executive. That meeting, according to the Government, will be the previous step to restart the meetings of the dialogue table that were truncated with the pandemic and the division in the independence movement.

The conversation, which has been "fluid and productive", according to these sources, has lasted for 40 minutes in which they have addressed "different aspects of the current political situation" and "have shared the objective of moving towards overcoming the challenges common through dialogue ”. This talk is the prelude to the meeting between Aragonès and Sánchez in La Moncloa that the Chief Executive had raised. Sánchez also wants to meet these days with the Madrid president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, also recently elected. The conversation between Aragonès and Sánchez has taken place with an eye on a new meeting of the dialogue table between governments. The central executive is not in a hurry, and first wants to see how the appointment goes in La Moncloa. Aragonés, on the other hand, demands that it be held before the summer holidays.

The legislature takes such a turn towards the Catalan question, dominated by the close perspective of pardons to the prisoners of the

and the possibility, which EL PAÍS pointed out this Monday, that the Council of Ministers present the reform of the Penal Code that will limit the penalties for sedition. Everything is precipitated with the idea of ​​returning to the dialogue that dominated the first part of the legislature and the end of the previous one, when the PSOE ruled alone but with the support of ERC and PDeCAT, an agreement that was truncated by an attempt to negotiate precisely of a dialogue table and the controversy surrounding the figure of the rapporteur.

The Government wants to propose amnesty for all those involved in legal cases related to 1-O and a self-determination referendum at the new dialogue table. The central government abides by what is included in the "agenda for the reunion" delivered in February 2020 by Sánchez to the then president, Quim Torra, as stressed this Thursday by the Minister of Territorial Policy and Public Function, Miquel Iceta in an act in Bilbao. "We are going to stick to that proposal, but with the greatest of provisions to listen to the Generalitat's approach," Iceta clarified. This agenda raises the possibility of negotiating financing or a boost to infrastructures, but does not mention the two requirements of the Government of Aragonès.

The minister explained that Sánchez and Aragonès have started to talk and see each other "as soon as possible", and that it will be from that interview when "the decisions that will re-launch that table for dialogue" will be made.

The Sánchez government cannot accept either a referendum or the amnesty, which it considers unconstitutional, but the agreement implies that the representatives of the Generalitat can raise these types of issues at the table even if the other side sees them as unviable.

The Government wants to launch messages of detente in Catalonia and considers that the pardons to the prisoners of the

they are one of the most effective. The Executive tries to counteract the argument that it is forgiving the leaders of the

everything

and that they will be left without penalty. The members of the Government recall that the 12 prisoners who are going to be pardoned have already served almost four years in prison in some cases and the only thing that is going to be done is to advance their third-degree release by a few months, which was not going to be late in the most of them. In addition, the disqualification will be maintained, so the practical effects of the pardon will be limited, but it is above all a political decision loaded with symbolism as a gesture in favor of starting a new stage of dialogue. "The cost to the country would be to leave things stuck as they are," argued the president at the beginning of the week.

Sánchez will attend an act of Foment del Treball on Monday in Barcelona, ​​on his first trip to Catalonia after the election of the new Government of the Generalitat. At the meeting, on the occasion of the entity's 250th anniversary, the Commemorative Medal will be presented to the editor of La Vanguardia, Javier Godó. The president of Foment, Josep Sánchez Llibre will also attend; as well as a representation of the new Government, and the first deputy mayor of the Barcelona City Council, Jaume Collboni.