Leaders meet without any negotiation

Carles Puigdemont maintains there is no dialogue with the Spanish government, despite the contact between the two executives and the fact that he met with Mariano Rajoy on January 11 at the Moncloa, according to newspaper La Vanguardia. “These are not negotiations and, obviously I do not expect them to be,” he said. The Spanish PM, as well neither confirmed nor denied the existence of an informal lunch. Instead, he insisted on his “willingness to talk,” but only of the “real concerns” and not of “liquidating Spain or the law.”

Following a number of days when both executives had denied contacts, the report was confirmed by both Madrid and Barcelona in the same terms and no mention of either negotiation or referendum was made by either party. The confirmation contains both ambiguities and agreement.

PSC leader Miquel Iceta had been first to mention the meeting and stated on Monday that he hoped it would lead to a resolution of the crisis before October, saying that it was up to the two leaders to “talk, and even better, to come up with results.”

In Parliament, Lluís Rabell of CSQP, accused Puigdemont of saying one thing in public and doing the opposite and of “misleading the public.” Inés Arrimadas also criticised Puigdemont for hiding the information.