Catalan Separatists Stress Dialogue After Spain Talks Stall

Leaders of Esquerra Republicana, a Catalan separatist party that holds the key to acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s chances of quickly forming a new Spanish government, stressed the need for dialogue as they press their claim for independence.

“We need to open a time when politics overcomes repression,” Pere Aragones, Esquerra’s national coordinator, said on Twitter after addressing Esquerra’s party congress in Barcelona. He said it was it time to make the most of an opportunity for political negotiation to replace the legal crackdown and described Esquerra’s role as that of an “ice-breaker.”