17:13 – Catalonia: the dialogue resumes but Torra remains inflexible on the independence

Catalan separatist President Quim Torra reiterated on Monday that he would not abandon "any path" towards independence while the government of Pedro Sanchez rejected any idea of ​​referendum of self-determination, after a the summit meeting between the two men, which however allowed to resume the dialogue after the attempted secession of October 2017.

"A political crisis requires a political solution.This meeting is a constructive starting point to normalize relations" , tweeted Pedro Sanchez in Spanish and Catalan after the two-and-a-half hour meeting at the Moncloa Palace in Madrid, intended to ease tensions – the first in more than two years between a Spanish head of government and a Catalan regional president.

But in spite of this desire for dialogue, the return to the positions of principle of each of the two camps was immediate.

"Any solution pbades by the respect of the right it to the self-determination of Catalonia. The Catalan government does not give up any way to achieve the independence of Catalonia ", implied including the unilateral way, insisted Quim Torra before the press at the headquarters of the delegation of Catalonia in Madrid.

Few earlier, the Vice-President of the Spanish Government, Carmen Calvo, reiterated that such a right "does not exist" in the Spanish Constitution. "There is very little to say" on the subject, she pointed out.

Catalonia was last fall the scene of the most serious political crisis that Spain has known since its return to democracy when the regional government of Carles Puigdemont organized an illegal referendum self-determination on October 1, marked by police violence, before the Catalan parliament unilaterally declared independence on October 27.

In response, the conservative government of Mariano Rajoy had – with the support of Pedro Sanchez then in opposition – put under supervision the region, dismissed his executive, dissolved his parliament and convened new regional elections.

A poll won again on December 21 by the separatists, whose main leaders were imprisoned or have fled abroad like Carles Puigdemont, who is waiting in Germany for the decision of the court on Spain's request for extradition.

The tutelage imposed on the region was lifted in June, after months of blockages when Mr Torra's executive took office, appointed by Mr Puigdemont to succeed him

– Resumption of the dialogue –

Despite this frontal opposition on the question of self-determination, MM. Sanchez and Torra, on the other hand, decided to reinstate the bilateral commissions between the central government and the regional executive, particularly with regard to labor, health, environment and education issues.

Commissions like the previous one Mariano Rajoy's conservative government had given up when he came to power in 2011.

Other signs of renewed dialogue, the Sanchez government plans to lift Mariano Rajoy's veto to social laws pbaded by the Catalan executive while second meeting is planned shortly in Barcelona.

At the head of the government since June 1 thanks in particular to the voices of Catalan separatists, during the vote of a motion of censure against Mr. Rajoy, Mr. Sanchez had promised immediately to ease tensions with Catalonia.

However, he had described Quim Torra two weeks ago as "The Pen of Spanish Politics."

Turning from words to deeds, the government on Wednesday transferred to prisons in Catalonia six of the nine independentist leaders incarcerated near Madrid for their role in the attempt to secede

If the government is opposed to any referendum, the Minister of Territorial Policy Meritxell Batet had however advocated in early June a revision of the Constitution to move towards a federal structure. the Spanish state to solve the Catalan crisis

But with 84 deputies out of 350, the socialists have no chance of seeing it succeed. "There is no majority in Spain to make a revision of the Constitution.The right can block it," notes Fernando Vallespín, professor of political science at the Autonomous University of Madrid.