Spain’s deputy premier meets with exiled Catalan leader to negotiate gov't formation

By Alyssa McMurtry

OVIEDO, Spain (AA) - Yolanda Diaz, Spain’s second deputy prime minister, met with former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont in Brussels on Monday to begin talks on government formation.

National elections in July led to a hung parliament, and Spain’s left-wing bloc needs the support of Puigdemont and his party to form a government.

Diaz met with the exiled Catalan leader as the leader of the far-left party Sumar.

Puigdemont, currently a Member of the European Parliament, fled Spain in 2017 after he spearheaded an illegal referendum and subsequent declaration of independence in Catalonia. He is still wanted under Spanish law.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez pardoned the Catalan leaders who faced trial in Spain, but Puigdemont still faces significant prison time upon his return. In exchange for supporting government formation, his party is demanding amnesty and other concessions, like a binding vote on Catalan independence.

“We agree that we need to explore all the democratic solutions to unblock the political conflict,” said a joint statement released by Diaz and Puigdemont after the three-hour meeting. “We share the deep conviction that politics should be conducted through dialogue and democratic principles.”

This meeting infuriated members of Spain’s conservative Popular Party and far-right party Vox.

“Today, the government is meeting with a fugitive in Brussels,” Popular Party leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. “The interests of Pedro Sanchez cannot condition the politics of our country.”

Paradoxically, Feijoo is also trying to form a government. To do so, he is negotiating with some nationalist parties from the Basque Country and Catalonia as well.

Meanwhile, Sanchez said Monday that it’s time to “turn the page” on the political conflict with Catalonia. “We want to leave behind a past marked by trenches. We want dialogue and harmony, the best solutions to this crisis.”

Puigdemont wrote on X that Monday’s meeting forms part of “democratic normality” and it shouldn’t be a “surprise or an exception.”

Diaz, for her part, said that she aims to “promote social progress and move towards a plurinational country.”

If neither Feijoo nor Sanchez can muster up majority support to form a government, Spaniards could be forced to go back to the polls.