Catalan president and Spanish PM to meet on July 15 in Madrid

Catalan president Pere Aragonès and Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez will meet on July 15 in Madrid, as was announced following a meeting between Catalan presidency minister Laura Vilagrà and her Spanish counterpart, Félix Bolaños, in Barcelona on Friday. 

This will be their first formal face-to-face gathering since government relations broke down in the wake of the Catalangate espionage scandal, in which at least 80 people with ties to the pro-independence movement were allegedly targeted with Pegasus spyware thought to have been used by “Spanish government entities” including the Spanish Intelligence Agency (CNI). 

In addition to next week's meeting between Aragonès and Sánchez, both parties also agreed to hold two 'dialogue table' talks on issues stemming from the 2017 crisis by the end of the year - but only with Catalan and Spanish government officials in attendance.  

A new agreement guiding negotiations

“We are striving for an agreement that opts for dialogue and political solutions,” Bolaños, who highlighted the greatly improved relations between authorities since the 2017 referendum deemed unconstitutional by Spain, told the press.

“We must work from a place of respect between both parties in order to have faith in these negotiations,” Vilagrà said, adding that its text speaks of “finding a democratic solution to the conflict.”

That said, relations between both governments are, according to Vilagrà, yet to be fully restored following the Catalangate crisis. She also spoke of the need to put an end to the many lawsuits that resulted from the 2017 push for independence, as well as the ongoing attempts to extradite politicians such as former Catalan president and current MEP Carles Puigdemont to Spain to sit trial for these events.  

What are these talks about?

Spain’s minority Socialist-Podemos government is in power in Madrid largely thanks to a January 2020 deal with Esquerra Republicana: the left-wing pro-independence party did not vote against the coalition in Spain's Congress in exchange for talks on issues rating to Catalan independence.

These talks, however, have long been put on hold and been met with skepticism and a more hardline stance from Esquerra’s junior partner, Junts per Catalunya, which did not attend the last meeting as it wanted party members who are not in government to participate, as well as fellow pro-independence CUP, especially since the Catalangate revelations.

Because only government officials - and not formerly imprisoned independence leaders who have been barred from office - will be allowed to participate in these talks, it is unclear whether Junts will choose to attend them down the line.