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The Catalan government warns Sánchez that without a referendum the political conflict in Catalonia "will not end"

2023-01-06T23:05:53.665Z


The central Executive radically rejects this option and considers that the 'procés' ends after the reform of the Penal Code


The

Government

has alerted the Government of Pedro Sánchez this Friday that the political conflict continues in force in Catalonia and that it will not end until a referendum on self-determination is held.

The spokesperson for the Catalan Executive insisted on that thesis last Tuesday, at the end of the Executive Council, and this Friday the Minister of the Presidency, Laura Vilagrà, reiterated it.

Moncloa strongly rejects the proposal.

“We know that it is complex and that the path will not be easy.

But we are absolutely convinced that it is the line to get the political conflict to end”, Vilagrà said in an interview with Efe.

"Without the vote of the citizens of Catalonia, the political conflict will not end."

The Government's position clashes head-on with that of Pedro Sánchez, who also defends that the

process

has ended after the reform of the Penal Code, added to the pardons, which has made it possible to repeal the crime of sedition and reform that of embezzlement.

The modification, which will enter into force next week, has improved the criminal expectation of

process leaders

and former government officials who are facing trials.

Vilagrà acknowledges the legal advances, but stresses that in this second phase ERC wants to focus on the referendum and completing an amnesty.

“Pedro Sánchez would be making a mistake if he thought that just by having opened the line of de-judicialization the conflict has ended.

On the contrary, Simply looking the other way will not end.

That folder, sooner rather than later, they have to open it”.

After the enormous commotion created by the reform of the Criminal Code, the Government decided from the outset to cool down the dialogue table and not hold the meeting that was scheduled for last December.

The Catalan Executive reluctantly accepted that position last Tuesday, but played down the annulment of the call by claiming that it was going to be just a photo to show the agreements on embezzlement and sedition.

The question remains as to when the next table will be held with the municipal elections in sight and with the wear and tear that the PSOE has suffered with a high stake.

The Government warns that it wants the next appointment to also serve to show results.

From the beginning of the negotiation, ERC defends that the referendum is the most democratic formula to resolve the conflict, but it has met with the insurmountable rejection of the Government.

The diagnosis is divergent: Sánchez maintains that the process has ended

,

that a stage of "coexistence and harmony" has opened in Catalonia and that it is time to overcome the fracture "once and for all".

The Catalan socialists also reject the referendum for being "divisive" and advocate looking forward.

All the independence movement, and not only ERC, rejects this analysis.

the

president

Pere Aragonès calls for a “clarity pact” that sets the conditions for a referendum such as that half the census must necessarily vote and that the “yes” to independence be considered valid if it achieves 55% of the votes.

The Parliament rejected in September, in the General Policy debate, that proposal by Aragonès that only achieved the complicity of En Comú Podem (Junts abstained and the rest of the forces voted against).

The commons had defended a similar idea in the past, but this Thursday Jéssica Albiach, its parliamentary leader, acknowledged that in the Chamber "there is not a sufficient majority" for that pact and called on Aragonès to convene the table of Catalan parties to decide " among all” what is “the great proposal of the country”.

”The first thing is to reach agreements in Catalonia”, rebuts Vilagrà.

"Ideas often need a certain amount of maturation to move forward and in the coming months we will work to obtain a powerful coalition to go strong in Madrid."

The PSC has been reproaching Aragonès for months for not calling that table of Catalan parties whose celebration was included in the agreements between the Government and ERC.

Salvador Illa, first secretary of the PSC, usually reproaches the

president

that he should lead by example when he always calls for dialogue.

And not only that.

The also head of the opposition in Catalonia asked ERC to stop "lying" and have the "courage" to tell the truth.

“Catalonia has turned the page on the

process

and there will not be a referendum.

Enough fantasizing, ”Illa said in December, visibly annoyed when he reiterated that the Catalans will vote for an agreement in the future, but only on self-government.

With the municipal elections on the horizon, ERC and PSC will compete to be the first political force.

For weeks, they have been negotiating the Catalan budgets whose fate is now unknown.

At the moment, the Executive has had to extend the accounts.

With only 33 seats and a fragile parliamentary majority, the Government needs PSC (33) or Junts (31).

The talks have run aground because the PSC demands political counterparts to unravel large projects (expansion of the airport, the B-40 Round in Barcelona or the Hard Rock Café leisure complex) to approve them.

Faced with its strategy in Congress, ERC rejects the requests because it says that issues that go beyond the project cannot be negotiated within the framework of the Budgets.

In a letter to the militancy about the political course, Illa has claimed the need for Catalonia to have budgets.

“With papers, with numbers, with methods.

No bumps and no swerves, ”he says.

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2023-01-06

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