Torra attending Spanish congress 'reasonable' but with parliamentary consensus, says Madrid

It would be "reasonable" and "interesting" for Catalan president Quim Torra to accept the Spanish speaker's offer of addressing congress, according to the Pedro Sánchez administration. Yet it deems it necessary for the president to submit a proposal in the Catalan parliament beforehand, and come to Madrid once an agreement has been reached in the hemicycle, it said on Thursday. Thus far, Torra has not ruled the invitation out.

"It would be reasonable for Torra to come, but whatever he brings should be discussed and voted on in the Catalan parliament," sources close to Spain's leader Pedro Sánchez said.

It is a message in line with what Spanish territorial policy minister Meritxell Batet, and Spain's delegate in Catalonia Teresa Cunillera said in two separate interviews on Thursday morning, on TVE and Catalunya Ràdio respectively.

"A new consensus"

Batet insisted that it is necessary to open a debate "between Catalans" and come to a "new consensus in the Catalan parliament."

Cunillera stated that it would be "bold" for Torra to speak in the Spanish chamber before such an agreement is reached.

Sánchez's executive considers Pastor's offer to be an "exercise of democratic transparency," but only if the Catalan president comes with the aforementioned consensus of parliament.

The key topic up for debate would be a referendum on Catalan independence. Torra has urged his Spanish counterpart to accept a binding vote on the self-determination of the country, stating he is willing for dialogue but won't give up until such an agreement is reached.

But the Catalan president wants to avoid any "humiliation" from Spain's lower chamber. "I would like to know whether I would go as a guest or as a first dish," he said on Wednesday in Brussels.

Swings and roundabouts

In June 2017, a week after the then Catalan executive presented the October 1 referendum on independence, former president Puigdemont offered to attend the Spanish Congress to speak about the vote. 

Pastor accepted his offer but on one condition: a vote on the referendum had to take place in the Spanish Congress. Puigdemont rejected it, so he never attended, and on Tuesday Artadi said that the same condition would make Pastor's offer "sterile." 

Has any Catalan president spoken in Spanish parliament?

Never in recent history has a Catalan president in office spoken in a Spanish parliamentary session.

But, in April 2014, three representatives of the then Catalan Parliament (Marta Rovira, Joan Herrera, and Jordi Turull) defended an agreed referendum on self-determination for Catalonia in the Congress through an amendment of the Spanish Constitution. 

The Spanish lower chamber voted overwhelmingly against it, with 47 Yes votes, 299 No votes and 1 abstention. 

Four years after that session – which led to an unofficial and symbolic vote on self-determination without Madrid's consent later on in 2014 – Rovira is in exile in Switzerland, and Turull in prison. Joan Herrera, against independence and former leader of a green alliance, is no longer in politics.