Media: Talks on Catalonia conflict begin in Switzerland
Published: Saturday, Dec 2nd 2023, 14:10
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According to media reports, representatives of the Spanish governing party PSOE and the Catalan Junts party of separatist leader Carles Puigdemont began talks in Switzerland on Saturday under strict confidentiality about a settlement to the long-running conflict. This was reported by the Spanish state TV station RTVE and the newspaper "El País", among others.
The negotiators from both sides had already arrived in Geneva the day before, as could be seen on television. It was not known whether Puigdemont himself would attend. There was initially no official announcement from either side. Not even the exact location of the meeting was known.
Spain's head of government Pedro Sánchez had agreed to the negotiations in order to secure the votes of Puigdemont's Junts party in the parliament in Madrid for his re-election as prime minister just over two weeks ago. Puigdemont wants Catalonia to secede from Spain, while Sánchez wants to prevent this and defuse the conflict through dialog and concessions.
Junts had insisted that the talks with the PSOE be accompanied by a neutral organization that would verify possible results and monitor their implementation. Officially, it has so far been kept secret who has taken on this role. RTVE reported that it was the renowned Swiss Henri Dunant Center for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD or HDC). This private foundation based in Geneva, which claims to have been discreetly mediating in conflicts worldwide for decades, had already accompanied the dissolution of the Basque terrorist organization ETA in Spain and verified it in 2018.
According to media reports, the meeting took place outside of Spain so that Puigdemont, who lives in exile in Belgium, could possibly attend in person. In his home country, he would be arrested immediately because in 2017, as head of the regional government at the time, he attempted to break Catalonia out of the Spanish state with an illegal independence referendum.
Sánchez has also promised Junts and the second separatist Catalan party ERC an amnesty for his re-election. However, this still has to be approved by parliament, which could take months.
Spain's conservative opposition is up in arms against the concessions made to the Catalans. Opposition leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo from the conservative People's Party (PP) has repeatedly warned of a threat to Spain's unity, democracy and the separation of powers.
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