Catalan and Spanish presidents to meet aiming to reestablish dialogue

Catalan President Quim Torra and Spanish president Pedro Sánchez will sit down together in Barcelona on Thursday looking to preserve the fragile dialogue the two sides established after the Socialist leader unexpectedly came to power last spring.

The presidents met for a first official meeting in Madrid on July 9, and while the Spanish government described the encounter as "courteous" and "cordial," it also bluntly ruled out Torra's key demand for a binding referendum on self-determination.

The goodwill resulting from pro-independence parties supporting Sánchez's motion of no confidence that ousted the PP government has since been tested, and at the meeting in Barcelona's Palau de Pedralbes on Thursday evening both men will look to avoid undermining it further.

In an unlikely show of renewed unity in the Spanish congress, Catalan parties backed Sánchez’s deficit target for next year, regarded as a preliminary step before the upcoming crucial vote to pass the budget—which seemed a lost cause only some weeks ago.

Modest expectations

With no progress made on the fate of Catalan leaders in prison awaiting trial, and high profile disagreements, such as Madrid's insistence on deploying 600 police officers for the Spanish cabinet meeting the day after, expectations are modest going into the meeting.

Yet, despite the rising tensions between the two executives in recent weeks, another "cordial" meeting suits both leaders, if Torra's hopes for an agreed political solution to the Catalan conflict and Sánchez's hopes of passing the budget are to have a chance of succeeding.

As one leader of the pro-independence PDECat party said in the run-up to the encounter: "We all want to move forward, but we are walking through a minefield."

The same applies to a parallel 'mini-summit' between top officials from both executives, which the government insisted on and the Spanish government only reluctantly agreed to at the last moment. The results of the meetings could be less important than transmitting a message of mutual understanding and political stability.

A backdrop of protests

Raising the stakes will be the widespread protests planned by pro-independence supporters, which will provide the backdrop to the meetings, as well as the extraordinary meeting of the Spanish cabinet due to take place in the Catalan capital on Friday.

That meeting coincides with the anniversary of the Catalan elections last year in which the pro-independence parties held on to their majority in Parliament following the period of direct rule of Catalonia imposed by the former PP government in response to the push for independence.

All the major pro-independence organizations have planned demonstrations and protests to coincide with the Spanish executive's visit to Barcelona, from the influential grassroots civic groups, the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) and Òmnium Cultural, to the Committees for the Defense of the Republic (CDR), responsible for blocking major highways in recent weeks.

The success of the various meetings will in large part depend on how the protests pan out, with the harsh crackdown by Spanish police during the October 1 referendum last year, along with other clashes with police since then, still fresh in Catalonia's collective memory.

Yet, unionists believe avoiding violence is a vain hope. The leader of the main opposition party, Inés Arrimadas, this week accused Torra of condoning violence by praising pressure groups like the CDR, and she called on the Spanish government to re-impose direct rule.