Rajoy will meet with the new Socialist leader two days before talking to the Catalan President

Barcelona (ACN).- The so-much awaited meeting between the Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, and the President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, has finally been announced for Wednesday 30th of July at 11am, after both politicians stated during several months that they were open to talk. In the meeting, they will discuss the institutional and social affairs related to the economic crisis but they should also talk about the organisation of a self-determination vote in Catalonia. However, Rajoy has rejected to talk about it, as he considers it "an absurd" debate, despite the fact that 80% of Catalans want to hold such a vote and it is the main topic in Catalonia's political agenda, and probably in Spain's as well. On the same day, the day Mas' meeting was announced, the Spanish PM's team also released the news that on Monday 28th of July, Rajoy will meet Pedro Sánchez, the new Secretary General of the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE). Sánchez stated that he is against Catalonia's self-determination and offered Rajoy his support to reach "state agreements", such as those regarding "the territorial model". During the last months the PSOE has been proposing a Constitutional Reform to better fit Catalonia into a true federal Spain, an initiative that Rajoy and the governing People's Party (PP) totally reject and block.

Finally, the meeting between Artur Mas and Mariano Rajoy has a fixed day and time. They will meet in Madrid, in La Moncloa Palace – which is the official residence and office of Spain's PM – on Wednesday 30^th of July at 11am. As it had already been announced last week, the two politicians will meet before the end of July, the first time the two of them have held a meeting since August 2013. Mas has requested the meeting to mainly talk about Catalonia's self-determination process and the vote scheduled on the 9^th of November 2014, following an agreement among two-thirds of the Catalan Parliament, who were answering the mandate from the 2012 Catalan elections. Back then, 80% of the MPs were elected with the electoral promise to support a legal self-determination vote.

Mas will ask Rajoy not to block the Catalan law enabling the self-determination vote

The Spanish authorities, making a restrictive interpretation of the Constitution, state such a vote is not legal, despite the other experts who argue the opposite. After the Spanish Parliament (where the PP holds an absolute majority) rejected to transfer the powers to organise a self-determination vote to the Catalan Government last April, parties supporting such a vote are using the Catalan legal framework to make it happen. The Catalan Parliament is about to approve a new Law on Consultation Votes that should enable November's self-determination vote. It is very likely that the Spanish Government will take it to the Constitutional Court in order to block it. It is expected that Mas will ask Rajoy not to block such a vote by appealing this law.