2023-11-07 23:37:21
950 meters. It is the distance that separates the two hotels in which everything has almost happened, but has not happened. At least for now. Brussels is being the epicenter of the negotiations for the investiture of Pedro Sánchez and, 20 days before the deadline to form a Government, it has become the main stage for an agreement that has not been closed as planned.
The PSOE and Junts shield the amnesty negotiation against the judicial offensive against the leaders of the process
Carles Puigdemont met with the Junts hard core last week at the Thon Hotel on Rue de la Loi, the long avenue that connects the Cinquantenaire park with the city center passing by most European institutions. That was the establishment chosen at the beginning of September by the former Catalan president for the conference in which he set the conditions for the seven Junts deputies to say ‘yes’ to the socialist candidate. But on Thursday there was a change of plans. And the lectern that was set up in the morning ended up being removed early in the afternoon.
An image that symbolized the cooling of the agreement with the PSOE hours after the socialists had agreed with ERC on the text of the amnesty, the forgiveness of the debt with the State and the transfer of Rodalies. The price of Junts rose.
By then the Secretary of Organization of the PSOE, Santos Cerdán, was back in Brussels. He had flown on Monday for the first meeting with Puigdemont, which both organizations reported with an agreed statement and some images distributed after the meeting in which the frame of a photograph of a 1-O ballot box that decorates the offices had been cut out. of the former Catalan president in the European Parliament.
That day Cerdán had left everything on track. That photo had been one of Junts’ demands for Pedro Sánchez’s investiture: after the meeting with the second vice president and leader of Sumar, Yolanda Díaz, Puigdemont wanted the socialists to recognize him as a valid interlocutor. So it was.
But Cerdán had to return in the middle of the week, although he did not meet with the former Catalan president nor was the agreement closed. Junts demanded to expand the perimeter of the amnesty. He Number Three of the PSOE returned to Spain on Friday and late on Sunday he got back on a plane to the community capital.
Again he had little luggage. The intention of the socialists was to close the agreement on Monday. Cerdán was locked between the room and the Sofitel restaurant all day. And the exchange of roles is being done electronically. And why be in Brussels? “Things need to be close,” they say in his team. Despite the distance of 300 meters that separated them from the Junts leadership, which met at the Press Club, they did not see each other in person on Monday. The independence leaders left the building at 1:20 p.m. on Monday without saying anything to journalists.
Beyond the cold water that came with the attempt to indict Puigdemont by Manuel García Castellón, the judge of the National Court, the obstacles remained until late at night, which was when the last papers were exchanged. “We continue talking and clarifying texts. The talks do not stop except for the night break,” sources in the negotiation pointed out this Monday. Junts is concerned that the judges could circumvent the amnesty while the socialists want a legally unappealable text in the face of the cascade of appeals from the right that they expect.
And in that tug of war, the socialists had to extend their reservation at the hotel, where they intended to leave on Tuesday. It was not the first time they stayed longer than expected. It had also happened the previous week. “We don’t have any date. The deadline is November 27,” those same sources indicated. Meanwhile, Puigdemont continued with his agenda and received the prior of the Montserrat monastery in the European Parliament.
Very happy to learn about the project to celebrate the Millennium of Montserrat. Thanks to the prior of the monastery and curator of the celebration, Bernat Juliol, and Lluís Baulenas, general director of institutional relations, for coming to the @Europarl_CAT and tell me the details. pic.twitter.com/W3tum39RPu
— krls.eth / Carles Puigdemont (@KRLS) November 7, 2023
Also on Tuesday the agreement was resisted, but this time Cerdán did leave the hotel for a while to go eat while the movement of journalists continued in the lobby, where the staff is used to seeing heads of government pass by, including Pedro Sánchez, and leaders such as the Italian Mario Draghi, who has been staying these days with Cerdán. It was at the Sofitel when, a little less than a year ago, the police arrested the father of the then vice-president of the European Parliament Eva Kaili with a suitcase full of banknotes as part of Qatargate.
The secrets of major political negotiations often remain in the hotels and restaurant booths of big cities, and those in Brussels have witnessed for decades how European history has been forged. It remains to be seen if in one of these scenarios the initially planned plan to close the amnesty is carried out, even if it is several days later.
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