Sánchez urged to shed light on mediator-led meetings with separatists

9 months ago 28

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez should shed light on the “humiliating” meeting held between his party colleagues and the Catalan separatist formation JxCat in the presence of a controversial mediator from El Salvador, the centre-right People’s Party said on Sunday.

Spanish chambers and the European Parliament should trigger the mechanisms to force Sánchez to report on the meeting urgently, said Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of the main opposition force, Partido Popular, echoing criticism from many analysts and left-wing media about the meeting being carried out in utmost secrecy, including in Discretion is not opacity” published in El País.

“It is an unbearable humiliation (…) I demand in the name of this country that this nonsense buy more time to live in (the) Moncloa (palace, seat of the executive). In the name of the Spanish people, no”, Núñez Feijóo said at a demonstration held in Madrid’s city centre on Sunday morning.

The holding of regular meetings is part of the agreement between Sanchez’s Socialist Party PSOE and JxCat, the right-wing separatist party led from self-exile in Belgium, by former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, who has given his backing for Sánchez in exchange for generous concessions, including an amnesty law for those involved in the 2017 secessionist attempt in Catalonia.

Both the PP and the far-right Vox party, the third force in parliament, view this exceptional pardon as unconstitutional and have carried out mass protests in recent weeks and launched a tough offensive in the courts.

Furthermore, a coalition between the PSOE and the left-wing platform Sumar, and the PP, which, together with the European People’s Party (EPP), has “exported” the controversy over the amnesty law to the European Parliament, the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) and the European Commission.

EU Commission rejects Madrid’s version

In an attempt to dispel possible doubts from the EU executive as to whether the norm violates EU law or the Spanish Constitution, the Spanish Justice Minister, Félix Bolaños (PSOE/S&D), met last week in Brussels with Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders and European Commission Vice-President for Values and Transparency, Věra Jourová.

After the meeting, Bolaños assured that the European Commission has “zero concern” about the rule of law in Spain, but a day later Reynders’ spokesman, Christian Wigand, rejected this optimistic version.

“The analysis (of the Spanish amnesty law) is still ongoing, so in that sense, the Commissioner (Reynders) has not said for now that the amnesty law does not raise concerns”, Wigand stressed.

Núñez Feijóo has urged the government to explain before parliament details of the Geneva meeting “once it has been confirmed that the PSOE and Together for Catalonia are negotiating in Switzerland a new framework for coexistence and relations between Spain and one of its autonomous communities (Catalonia)”, he said on Saturday.

The PSOE’s Secretary of Organisation, Santos Cerdán, said that the meeting with representatives of JxCat and a member of the Swiss-based Henry Dunant Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, who will act as a mediator or “verifier” that the agreements between the two parties are fulfilled, took place in a cordial atmosphere, but provided no further details.

The Henry Dunant Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue mediated, among other activities, negotiations between the Spanish Government of former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (PSOE/S&D) to achieve the disarmament of the now defunct Basque terrorist group ETA, disbanded in 2011.

An ‘expert on Latin American guerrillas’ to mediate in Spain

Sánchez defended the need for an “international verifier” because of the “big mistrust” between the PSOE and JxCat, which are ideologically opposed.

After several days of speculation, both parties announced on Saturday that the diplomat from El Salvador, Francisco Galindo Vélez, will “coordinate the international mechanism that forms part of the political agreement”, EFE reported.

Galindo Vélez has been El Salvador’s ambassador to France and Colombia and has worked as a representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in different missions.

(Fernando Heller | EuroEFE.Euractiv.es)