Sánchez salutes Junqueras’ gesture and asks for “magnanimity” to grant grace | Spain

Pedro Sánchez puts another stone on the path of imminent pardons for the inmates of the treat. From Buenos Aires, where he is on official visit, Sánchez welcomed on Monday the gesture of Oriol Junqueras, with his resignation from the unilateral path – “any progress in favor of detente is welcome”, declared the president, but above all , he prepared the ground for granting the measure of grace. “I understand that there may be citizens who are worried about this decision [los indultos] that the government can take by thinking about what happened in 2017. I understand that it may hesitate to grant these pardons. But I ask you to have confidence, “he said.” We have to bet on correcting the mistakes of 2017, and that implies magnanimity. Thanks to this, we will allow Catalan society to come together. . I inherited the events of 2017. Despite objections, I ask for understanding and magnanimity because the goal is worth it, ”said Sánchez.

The president tries to facilitate the negotiation with ERC as much as possible and has not even ruled out that Oriol Junqueras is at the dialogue table, although he has stressed, as the government has already stressed, that he does not would not be logical for him to be there because it is a table between executives. “The political message is the will to open a new period in Catalonia, based on negotiation and dialogue. I don’t like to veto anyone, we are all aware that we are talking about a table between governments, but we don’t start well if now I say: “It must be or not”. The important thing is to take measures to make coexistence more flexible and overcome a very important crisis for Spanish society, ”insisted the Spanish president. In addition, Sánchez raised the possibility of an imminent change of government: “Regarding the supposed reshaping of the government, I will tell you that my focus is on vaccination, there are 70 days left to get group immunity. The rest is not a priority ”.

While the internal situation of the country is in full swing, Pedro Sánchez is increasing his trips to strengthen Spain’s international role. This week focuses on Latin America, with a three-day trip to Argentina and Costa Rica designed with two different goals. Sánchez is already in Buenos Aires, a city which, in the middle of the southern autumn, is plunged into a very hard wave of covid which confines it completely on weekends and partially the rest of the days. The president went to the Argentine capital with a group of businessmen, including the boss of the employers’ association, Antonio Garamendi, but above all he has a political objective: to support a strategic and ideological ally like Alberto Fernández , a moderate Peronist who in La Moncloa associates a social democrat – although the Argentinian political categories are still unclassifiable by European standards – and who has important links with Spain and with Sánchez, at a time of maximum difficulty.

The trip to Argentina surprised the political and economic circles of the country, as no one is currently visiting a city closed to tourists and mired in a devastating economic crisis due to the coronavirus. Spain has significant commercial interests in Argentina, and the Spanish president is trying to position himself as the great ally in Europe of a country that needs all the political support possible for a complex debt renegotiation with the IMF from $ 45 billion. “Spain has always been on our side, we appreciate it a lot, Pedro”, assured Fernández during the joint appearance. To which Sánchez replied: “Spain is attached to Argentina, a country to which we feel we are brothers. We are going to strengthen Spanish investment in Argentina. May this presence serve to show its support for the difficult but essential measures taken by the Argentine government, ”concluded the Socialist with reference to the restrictions.

Both also agree in their vision on the need to share vaccines among all countries. “We note with great concern that 90% of vaccines produced are in the hands of 10% of countries. We need vaccines to be a global asset, for technology to be shared, ”said Fernández. Sánchez has once again shown his commitment. “We will donate more than 20 million vaccines in 2021. In addition, we need to transfer knowledge and technology.”

Argentina, que sufrió uno de los confinamientos más estrictos y más largos del planeta in 2020, ha ido perdiendo el control de la pandemia y ahora ya ha superado en muertos a España, con más de 80,000, pese a que la vacunación avanza en casi todo the country. The trip will have, in addition to the economic and political part, a meeting between Sánchez and Fernández at Casa Rosada and a business summit, a symbolic part with the visit of the Spanish president to the Escuela Mecánica de la Armada (ESMA) . This torture center of the Argentinian dictatorship – which lasted between 1976 and 1983 – became under Kirchner mandate – Cristina Fernández is today vice-president of Fernández, who was the chief of staff of Néstor Kirchner – in a place of memory internationally recognized.

Sánchez and his team see ESMA as a model of what could be done with the Valley of the Dead: how to transform a landmark of dictatorship into a place of memory that remembers the repression for future generations. Sánchez will also pay tribute to the Spaniards who disappeared from the Argentine dictatorship. Argentina is the country with the most Spanish citizens abroad in the world, some 400,000.

Interest in Central America

The president will then travel to San José, Costa Rica, a country he will have visited twice during his tenure with this stay, which is very unusual. Sánchez is very interested in Central America, according to executive sources, especially because of the migration crisis, as the economic situation of many countries in this region pushes a large number of citizens to try to emigrate to the United States or in Europe, and the main gate is Spain.

Sánchez will use the trip to strengthen Spain’s role on the continent where it has the most influence, which it has lost in recent years to other actors such as the United States or China. Spanish companies, however, continue to have a huge presence and the main banks, telephone companies, energy or security companies in these countries are the large Spanish multinationals, which are now suffering from the generalized crisis in which the covid has engulfed the continent. . Sánchez is trying to regain that role and, in fact, this is his third tour of Latin America since he became president.

This Thursday, Spain organized a summit with the Central American Integration System (SICA), which is celebrating its 30 years. The presidents of Costa Rica, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Panama and Belize will be present, but the absence of Nicaragua and El Salvador is almost certain. In addition to economic issues, at the summit or at least informally, the issue of the migration crisis, which particularly affects this area of ​​Central America, one of the most impoverished on the continent, will be addressed. Spain is ready to offer its help to try to control the migratory phenomenon. Sánchez also announced at the Ibero-American summit in Andorra that Spain would send 7.5 million vaccines to Latin America, a small figure for a region of 650 million people, but significant for a country like Argentina. with 47 million and it is also a gesture to show the political interest to be a reference in matters of natural influence. In addition, throughout 2021, Spain will donate through the Covax mechanism a total of 22.5 million vaccines that will go mainly to Latin America.

Sánchez will return to Spain just for a very intense weekend, in which he will find the pardons debate in full swing. Above all, he will follow with the maximum interest the result of the Andalusian primaries of the PSOE on Sunday, in which it is specified whether his great internal rival in 2017, Susana Díaz, is definitively defeated. If Juan Espadas wins, Sánchez will have finished controlling the game, but what worries La Moncloa most is how weak the Andalusian PSOE is at the moment. The Socialists need to regain ground in Andalusia, their historic voting barn, and Sánchez will focus on that as soon as the internal battle is resolved. In addition, Sunday’s protest against Pardons will also follow, a sort of reissue of the one known as the Columbus 2019 photo.

The government is making a great educational effort to prepare citizens for the decision to grant pardon, and in this context, it has made a gesture of self-criticism from Oriol Junqueras, with his letter published on Monday, which they consider very relevant. Despite this, the Executive is aware of the wear and tear that the decision entails, but it hopes that over time its political usefulness will be perceived in finding a solution to the Catalan conflict and leaving behind the tear of the conflict. treat.