Swiss mediator appointed for PSOE-Catalan meeting in Geneva amid ‘huge mistrust’

The meeting between Spanish Socialists and Catalan independentists scheduled for Saturday in Geneva will be mediated by a representative of Swiss think tank Henry Dunant’s Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue – the same mediator that helped during negotiations with Basque terrorists – to ensure all agreements are honoured, amid “great mistrust” between the two sides.

An international mediator is necessary because “it is good if two do not understand each other, for there to be a third party to verify that the agreements are moving forward”, said Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on Thursday (31 November).

“If we have very different positions, the good news is that, at least from these very different positions and this extraordinary mistrust, we have called to talk, dialogue and, if possible, agree,” Sánchez commented, adding that the government – in coalition with the progressive platform Sumar – is not yet “in a position to say where” the meeting will take place.

Spanish media revealed that the mediator will be the same, which mediated the negotiation between the now defunct Basque terrorist group ETA and the government of former prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (PSOE/S&D).

According to the organisation’s website, the Centre, based in Switzerland, has the mission of “preventing and resolving armed conflicts through dialogue, mediation and discreet diplomacy” and boasts of bringing together “all parties” to “the path to peace”.

This “international verifier” has caused much controversy in the Spanish media and among the two main right-wing opposition parties, the PP, the main opposition group, and the far-right Vox party, the third largest group in parliament.

In the interview, the prime minister expressed his wish that “hopefully in the future”, the presence of a verifier or mediator would not be necessary because “that will mean that we have made progress in trust”, he stated.

On Thursday. Deputy Secretary for Territorial Organisation of the centre-right People’s Party (Partido Popular/EPP), Carmen Fúnez, blamed the government for its lack of transparency about the meeting.

In an interview aired by private television Antena3, Fúñez described the meeting between PSOE, Puigdemont and the “international verifier” as “total and absolute democratic abnormality” and regretted that “a sense of normality is being given to something that has no place in a democratic state such as ours”.

Among the main concessions Sánchez has made to JxCat and ERC during negotiations are the approval of a controversial amnesty law for those involved in the 2017 secessionist attempt in Catalonia, including Puigdemont himself, the cancellation of €15 billion of debt owed by that region to the central state, and the transfer of full powers from Madrid to Catalonia over the local train network.

“In politics, as in life, you have to choose between ideal or possible solutions (…) when you don’t have an absolute majority”, Sánchez said, while admitting that “probably” the amnesty law “was not the next step” he would have liked to take.

[Edited by Alice Taylor]

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