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Spain’s central government on Thursday said the announcement of snap elections in Catalonia would delay planned talks between Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and the region’s separatist leadership.
News that the regional election would be brought forward was announced by regional president Quim Torra on Wednesday but he did not give a date, suggesting some time after mid-March.
The date was brought forward following a major dispute between Catalonia’s two ruling separatist parties, Together for Catalonia (JxC) and the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC).
The announcement came ahead of a key February 6 meeting in Barcelona between Torra and Spain’s Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to lay the ground for talks on resolving the separatist conflict.
In response, Sanchez’s office said the meeting would go ahead but that the negotiations would not begin until a new regional government was in place.
“The government is hoping to be able to begin the dialogue after the Catalan people have spoken… as soon as the elections are over and there is a new (regional) government, then we will begin talking,” said a statement.
“The government remains willing to start the process of dialogue with the Catalan institutions to resolve the political conflict.”
The talks had been agreed as part of a deal with ERC in exchange for its support in getting Sanchez through a key investiture vote earlier this month.
But the delay was swiftly denounced by the ERC as a “flagrant breach of the agreement which was completely irresponsible,” its party spokesman Sergi Sabria said
Sanchez, who himself is in a fragile position at the head of a minority coalition government, still needs ERC’s support to pass Spain’s own much delayed national budget.
In a radio interview Thursday, Torra said he would bring up the right to self-determination and amnesty for the nine jailed Catalan separatist leaders when he meets Sanchez — both of which have already been rejected out of hand by the Socialist leader.