Pedro Sánchez is going to avoid being photographed with Oriol Junqueras, but prior to the meeting he will hold in Congress with ERC this Wednesday – within the framework of the round of contacts for the investiture with all parliamentary groups except Vox – both have had a conversation phone call as a sign of “mutual respect.”
In it, the leader of the independence party has conveyed to the acting President of the Government “the need to advance in the negotiation of the main demands” that he demands in exchange for the votes of his party, among them amnesty for those convicted and prosecuted for the illegal 1-O consultation and a self-determination referendum in Catalonia.
The candidate for re-election, in turn, thanked his interlocutor for the support of his parliamentary group during the last legislature and has highlighted “the important political and social advances that have occurred during that time”, according to PSOE sources. “He has also presented his project for the next four years and the need to reach an agreement on progress and stability for this period,” they add to Ferraz’s leadership.
For their part, in ERC they maintain that their president has valued “the importance of the advances in a political, social and anti-repressive key” as a result of the agreements between both formations, in reference, among other measures, to the pardons for those convicted of 1 -Or – among them that of Junqueras himself -, the repeal of the crime of sedition and the lowering of penalties for embezzlement.
Sources from both parties agree that the conversation their leaders have had is a show of “mutual respect” and one more step towards “political normality.” Likewise, they have agreed to continue the talks through their respective negotiating teams.