AN ELEVENTH-HOUR meeting between Pedro Sánchez and Catalunya's president Quim Torra ahead of the separatist protests in Barcelona ended with mutual satisfaction and a pledge to continue with two-way open dialogue.
Whilst the previous PP-led government refused Catalunya's repeated requests for 'dialogue' on the independence issue – declining to even broach the subject as it considered the secession movement 'illegal' – socialist Pedro Sánchez says he is open to talks with the region in a bid to make peace between it and the mother country.
Sánchez had previously negotiated how to stage the meeting, with one sole red line: the format should be between members of a central and a regional government, not treated as a 'summit' between two independent States.
But both Torra and Sánchez appeared satisfied with what appeared to be a 'cordial' meeting, as both leaders described the session.
They are set to meet again in January as part of their agreement to 'negotiate the conflict' between the north-eastern region, whose leaders want to break away from Spain, and the national government, and to 'focus on effective dialogue' in order to 'provide a democratic response to the people's requests'.
Right-wing opposition parties, the PP and Ciudadanos, accused Sánchez of giving into blackmail and said their meeting was 'humiliating'.
At today's cabinet meeting, Sánchez agreed an additional €112.7 million in investment in Catalunya's roads across all four of the region's provinces, to issue a formal declaration condemning the judgment by dictator General Franco's régime which led to Catalunya's then president, Lluís Companys, being executed in 1940, and to rename Barcelona's El Prat airport after Josep Tarradellas, the first president of Catalunya after Spain's Transition to democracy.
