«You have to wait until the end of the end». In the PSOE they believe, they want to believe but they are not 100% calm. It is assumed that the pact is more than just in place, but closed. «It seems that yes, it is closed»; “The agreement, at least as far as the amnesty is concerned, must be completely closed,” say socialist leaders. There is trust, but the figure of Carles Puigdemont as the characters on which everything pivots, still generates distrust. Sources familiar with the negotiation anticipate “transfers” by the fugitive from Justice in the negotiation that the PSOE negotiating team has been maintaining for weeks.. Of course, they still offer no clue.
In the recent Federal Committee held by the PSOE, Pedro Sánchez achieved a majority closing of ranks to face his investiture, which represents a kind of blank check to negotiate with the pro-independence parties. But in the party, given the lack of information, there are doubts, uncertainty about what the independentistas have given up, what Puigdemont has compromised on.. Because the frogs they are swallowing are visible to everyone: negotiating an amnesty that until the general elections, and even days after them, they defended was unconstitutional; and a trip to Brussels to make public a photo with the leader of Junts, rehabilitate him as an interlocutor in an instance chaired by a photo of 1-O.
“When we see the pact we will see where we all give in,” is the message sent by those who know what is being negotiated.. The silence maintained by Sánchez and his negotiating team on the terms of the dialogue “increases the noise,” say party officials and leaders. “We assume that it will be within the Constitution,” say different territorial leaders.. But given the lack of certainty, the idea of the need for “a step” by Puigdemont and the rest of the independentists is installed because, they understand, they are already taking them.. And some, like the photo with Puigdemont, are difficult to direct. “It is not about transfers, but about continuing to negotiate, talking about reconciliation between Catalans and between Catalonia and Spain,” say sources from the socialist leadership.
“It is assumed that the investiture is moving forward, but with Puigdemont until the last minute it is not known,” admits a prominent socialist leader. Everyone in the PSOE assumes that without the certainty that there is no turning back, that the pact is more than on track, the photo with Puigdemont would not have been made public.. “There is trust,” admits government sources.
Santos Cerdán and Carles Puigdemont, as top representatives of the PSOE and Junts, held a meeting this Monday that lasted for an hour, according to sources familiar with it.. Both the images and the text that both parties sent were “agreed upon.”
The meeting was one of the most talked about issues in Congress yesterday, during Princess Leonor's swearing-in of the Constitution.. For Ximo Puig, senator and leader of the Valencian socialists, the image of the meeting was not uncomfortable.. “No, I believe that we must try to advance concord, and to advance concord we must respect each other,” he explained upon his arrival at Congress.. The meeting between the PSOE delegation and Puigdemont also took place in a room presided over by an image of the 1-O – a girl holds a ballot box that was used to celebrate the illegal consultation, cheered by the rest of the people -, and which did not It could be seen in the images provided by the PSOE.
“All the steps taken to advance in the formation of a government are absolutely favorable,” said the former president of Valencia.. “Beyond the images, the important thing is that progress is made to agree that there is a Government of progress.”
Emiliano García-Page, president of Castilla-La Mancha, and who at the meeting of the Federal Committee of the PSOE, in which Sánchez embraced the amnesty, expressed his rejection of forgiveness before his colleagues, predicted that there will be “even more serious photos in the future”.
“They were very appropriate,” responded Felipe González when questioned about the meeting in Brussels. The former president of the Government has made clear on several occasions his rejection of the amnesty. “Who do you take me for?” he said when asked if he had also met.