Yolanda Díaz travels to Brussels to meet with Carles Puigdemont in the European Parliament

The leader of Sumar and acting second vice president, Yolanda Díaz, is in Brussels to meet with the former Catalan president and MEP Carles Puigdemont, as confirmed by sources from the Government and Sumar. Sources from the socialist sector of the Executive assure that Díaz is there as leader of Sumar, and not as a representative of the Government, therefore they dissociate themselves from this trip.

Díaz will meet with Puigdemont, who has fled in Belgium since 2017, in the European Parliament, according to Sumar sources. The meeting, called at 12:00, will also be attended by former deputy Jaume Asens and MEP Antoni Comín, who also fled Catalonia after the unilateral declaration of independence on October 27.

The reason for the meeting, according to a call issued by former president Puigdemont’s office, is “to exchange opinions on the current political moment.” The visit to the two independence leaders, fugitives from Spanish justice in Brussels, occurs in the midst of talks about a possible amnesty law for crimes related to the process. Junts and ERC put this amnesty as one of the conditions to vote yes to the Government of Pedro Sánchez.

The trip is not negotiated or agreed with the socialist sector, according to government sources. Díaz informed La Moncloa this Sunday night that he has acknowledged, but has not agreed on the meeting or the content, so he does not assume as his own what may be agreed upon. “They informed us late at night, to fait accompli. There is nothing agreed. We continue with our path, this has nothing to do with us”, summarizes in La Moncloa. Some members of the Government from the socialist sector point out in any case that this initiative does not have to harm the negotiation, because Junts and PSOE speak directly and this is something separate.

The news has arrived in the middle of Sánchez’s ceremony to kick off the political course at the Ateneo de Madrid, a place with a lot of history as an intellectual, democratic and republican reference in Spain. The acting president has launched a speech there without any direct reference to Díaz’s trip – although the issue was discussed in the hallways – but with very clear mentions of the investiture and the negotiation with Junts, which demands, like ERC, a law of amnesty. Sánchez has been especially harsh with Alberto Núñez Feijóo – “this investiture attempt is the result of the obstinacy of a person more concerned with maintaining his position in a party than with the good of the citizens. Feijóo turns his legitimate personal frustration into a block. The right lacks a country project” – and he has shown himself convinced that he will achieve his own investiture after the leader of the PP fails. And there he has opened the door to amnesty, without expressly citing it.

Sánchez maintains that the PSOE will be “coherent” with the line maintained until now, with pardons or reforms of the Penal Code, and that is why “the next legislature will be the one that truly leaves behind the fracture” of the process. “We want to leave behind a past of trenches. We are committed to dialogue and harmony, it is the best solution to this crisis. A solution that will be totally constitutional. We must be coherent and move forward along that path. In this legislature we must leave behind the rupture of 2017. It is the moment for audacity, for politics, to continue advancing in coexistence. Our project defends the Constitution and advocates for a common project that is based on respect and affection, that defends the union of Spaniards, that assumes linguistic and cultural plurality as a source of pride,” concluded the leader of the PSOE, to thank then “to all political forces”, including Junts, “the height of State that they are demonstrating.”

What affects the most is what happens closest. So you don’t miss anything, subscribe.

Subscribe

Everything therefore revolves around the negotiation of the investiture, and Díaz’s trip to Brussels is framed in that context. The leader of Sumar, directly and through former deputy Jaume Asens, has maintained fluid contact with Puigdemont throughout the month of August to facilitate the negotiations carried out directly by the PSOE through Félix Bolaños. However, the socialists claim that they are the ones who clearly direct these negotiations and do not feel concerned by what Asens speaks.

Díaz was the one who spoke most clearly about allowing the use of co-official languages ​​in Congress long before the pact for the table was known and now she is also speaking very openly about an amnesty law. But the real negotiation, the socialists insist, is with them, not with Sumar.

Subscribe to continue reading

Read without limits

#Yolanda #Díaz #travels #Brussels #meet #Carles #Puigdemont #European #Parliament