Catalan President Aragonès’s phone call with Spanish PM Sánchez gets the agreement on amnesty unblocked, keeping open negotiations on the resolution of the political conflict and the well-being of the people

Esquerra Republicana welcomes the agreement with the PSOE, clearing the path for an amnesty bill that will provide for all those who have suffered political reprisals through criminal, civil, accounting and administrative prosecutions concerning the national emancipation process.

The agreement allows negotiations to make way for an eventual investiture after the call between Pere Aragonès, the president of the Catalan Generalitat government and Esquerra Republicana National Coordinator on one hand, and the candidate for the Spanish premiership Pedro Sánchez on the other. Esquerra applauds the fact that, with the amnesty agreement, the negotiations will finally be unblocked, leading to an eventual broad agreement progressing with the key conditions set by Esquerra Republicana: resolution of Catalonia’s political conflict with the Spanish state, and the social well-being of the people, including the entire transfer of the Rodalies suburban and commuter railways, and correcting the fiscal deficit.

Esquerra commends the understanding on the issue of amnesty, with a bill that is to include all those who suffer reprisal in cases regarding Catalonia’s process of national emancipation, whether in criminal, civil, accounting or administrative proceedings, without exception. Esquerra Republicana emphasizes that it has been the negotiating strategy initiated in recent years that has made it possible to approach a bill, a necessary step, the starting point for a new phase of negotiations that must address the resolution of the political conflict between Catalonia and the Spanish state after years of general repression of the independence movement.

Esquerra Republicana acknowledges the negotiation teams’ efforts in unblocking the initial understanding and for applying democratic leverage in favour of the national and social interests of Catalonia. And they will continue to work to make possible the resolution of the conflict in terms of national recognition and self-determination, and to advance in the achievement of a greater degree of social and economic progress for the citizens of the Catalan countries as a whole, including the Balearics and Valencia.