Empathy, but little detail

The main news from the meeting between the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, and the Catalan president, Quim Torra, is that it was an open meeting and that the tone was far removed from the tension surrounding previous meetings between the two governments.

Apart from activating bilateral bodies paralysed since 2011, the meeting at La Moncloa served to show that dialogue is possible and the admission that between Catalonia and the State, there is a “political problem” which must be solved in the same way. Although yesterday there was no kind of precision at present there was agreement and that any suggestion of how to move forward towards a solution should be tabled for successive encounters. Following the meeting Torra’s main comment was that the meeting had verified the leaders could “talk about everything.”

Torra made it clear that “the political solution is through self-determination,” and that “this is the main point of future negotiations.” However, he stated he had not proposed a referendum at this point and neither had Sánchez broached Consitutional reform, although most of the meeting was occupied by Catalonia’s desire for self-determination. On the issue of the political prisoners, Deputy PM Carmen Calvo reaffirmed the government’s position that there were none in Spain.

The meeting served to confirm that the bilateral commission between Madrid and Barcelona created by the Estatut would be reactivated. The leaders will meet again, firstly at the commemoration of the terrorist attack in August last year, and then for talks in early autumn.