Catalan socialist leader gives 'positive assessment' on Aragonès-Sánchez meeting

The Leader of Catalan Socialists (PSC), Salvador Illa, gave a “positive assessment” of the meeting between Catalan president Pere Aragonès and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez that took place Thursday in Barcelona.  

The meeting ended with five agreements including progress on the transfer of the Rodalies commuter railway, a longstanding demand of Aragonès.  

"We have always defended a dynamic of collaboration, without confrontation and with realistic objectives,” Illa told to the Catalan News Agency (ACN). 

At the same time, Illa laments that Pere Aragonès “still brings up things that don’t correspond” to those dynamics.  Instead, says Illa, Aragonès should "focus on the drought, education, and the issues that affect Catalans.”  

Meeting between Sánchez and Feijóo 

Pedro Sánchez met with opposition leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo of the conservative People’s Party (PP) to discuss, among other things, the renovation of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), which has been blocked by PP since 2018. 

Before the meeting, Illa said that he hoped that the meeting, which lasted an hour and a half would not be “a waste of time”. He also urged the conservative party to “respect the functioning of our democracy and the Spanish Constitution."