Almost 24 hours after the expresident Carles Puigdemont made public his demands to support a hypothetical investiture of Pedro Sánchez, Sumar emphasized this Wednesday that “the center of the agreement goes through the amnesty” and that its approval “depends” on whether the numbers are given to form a future coalition government progressive. Despite the formulation on Tuesday by the leader of Junts, who indicated that it was a “precondition” to sit down to negotiate with the PSOE, the former deputy of En Comú Podem Jaume Asens, person designated by Yolanda Díaz as interlocutor in the negotiations with the independentistas, has qualified that the amnesty “is the condition for the investiture, not the previous condition to speak of the investiture”. Already in the afternoon, the acting second vice president and leader of Sumar has shown optimism in an act in Italy. “After the conversation with Mr. Puigdemont, I am convinced that there will be a progressive government in Spain,” she stated.
In statements to Onda Cero early this Wednesday, Asens has influenced his interpretation of the requests, explaining that he has discussed it “several times with him”, referring to the former Catalan president, who has fled from justice since 2017. “In Puigdemont’s terminology, it is the payment to give your votes”, he explained. “The investiture depends on that. Later he accompanied it with other reflections, but in any negotiation one starts from a position of maximums and then one softens their positions and I believe that there is a will in the case of Puigdemont to bring positions closer”, has opined the former president of the United Nations parliamentary group We can last legislature. Asens places the talks “in a framework that allows progress, that of the Constitution”, contrary to what other figures within socialism have criticized, as the former president of the Government Felipe González did the day before.
“If he had started his speech saying referendum, or referendum as a condition, which was one of the slogans of 2017, there would be no possible negotiation, and the demands he put on the table show that there is a will to dialogue, to maintain a bilateral relationship and I think it should be valued. Because despite the rhetoric with which the speech was wrapped, there is a certain pragmatism, a willingness to reach agreements”, Asens considered, optimistic about the options for the investiture that Sumar has been clinging to since 23-J.
Junts sources insist on the approach that the approval of the amnesty must be prior to the investiture. The adjusted calendar —Puigdemont referred to the fact that it would have to be in force “before the legal term expires to avoid new elections”, that is, two months after the attempt to investiture Alberto Núñez Feijóo— only leaves the possibility that there will be a certain overlap between the registration and processing of the initiative that a group in Parliament has to present and the negotiation of the other demands that Junts puts on the table in the face of a yes to Sánchez. He expresident Also, in his conference on Tuesday, he dropped other ways of showing the Government’s predisposition to accept the amnesty, such as that the State Attorney’s Office and the Prosecutor’s Office not continue with the cases related to secessionism (the proposal he makes is that it cover from facts prior to the participatory process of 9-N of 2014) or that the independence movement is no longer considered as “the second most important threat after jihadist terrorism” and that would imply changing intelligence directives.
The former deputy, who accompanied Díaz to the controversial meeting with Puigdemont in Brussels on Monday, has assured that they were already aware of Junts’ demands, as was the PSOE, who, according to his words, although he is not currently speaking with that party, Yes, “he had his demands on the table” for “weeks ago”, and he has stated that “there has been no response” from the Socialists.
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In addition to amnesty, the former parliamentarian for the commons has mentioned that Puigdemont “did not rule out other ways” that “could achieve the same effect or result”, although he stated that he is not “authorized” to talk about them. “There are different possibilities to try to turn the page and heal the wounds,” insisted Asens.
“You can explore”
While he sees it feasible to advance in the amnesty ―”a constitutional, democratic formula that can be explored”, he stressed―, Asens has shown himself to be much more critical of the figure of the rapporteur, which Puigdemont proposed again in his speech on Tuesday after that in February 2019 the Government accepted that claim from ERC and Junts, raising a huge controversy. That proposal was finally withdrawn by the Executive. “That is typical of armed conflicts, of peace processes,” Asens assured without ruling out “a facilitator to coordinate the work” who would do mediation work. “But when talking about an international, neutral rapporteur, it seems to me that it is hardly acceptable because it would lengthen the process a lot and it is still a negotiation between parties,” said the Sumar negotiator, who believes that this formula “is not common ” in this type of conversations between political formations.
However, Asens has considered that there is a “deep mistrust” between Junts and the PSOE, and between Puigdemont and Sánchez, which “comes from afar,” he said. “We can be useful to pave the way and create the conditions of trust (…), clear the path that others, in this case the PSOE, will have to go through,” said the former deputy and jurist in a clear claim of the role that Sumar has to play, with only 31 deputies —insufficient to achieve the investiture— in this phase.
Already in the past, the rapprochement between the Sánchez government and the then President Quim Torra derailed precisely because of that independent figure of the rapporteur. Since it became known that Junts would have the key to repeat the Executive, from Puigdemont’s party they insist on the need to create a framework of trust that has not existed until now between the parties and that figure would be key in a negotiation where it is evident that none of the two really believe each other. At his conference in Brussels, the founder of Junts did not speak of a person but of “a mechanism for mediation and verification”, thus leaving the nature of it open. Faced with agreements that cannot be bought “in advance” —as would be the case of the use of co-official languages—, in Junts they only see that external figure as the only way, said Puigdemont, to be certain “in processes that require a long process or execution”, something that could be the case of amnesty.
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