• PSOE leader will reiterate rejection of Catalan independence from Spain •
The leader of Spain’s Socialist party (PSOE), Pedro Sánchez, will meet Tuesday with representatives of Catalonia’s pro-Independence parties and will reportedly offer them a political “olive branch” while expressing his party’s continued opposition to Catalonia’s secession from Spain.
Sánchez will meet with parliamentary leaders of the Democracia y Llibertad (formerly Convergencia) and Catalan Republican Left (ERC) parties in Madrid as part of ongoing all-party meetings in Congress en route to a March 2nd vote on Sánchez’s candidacy to become Spain’s next President.
A PSOE spokesperson says Sánchez will not seek the Catalan parties’ direct backing and will make clear he does not support their independence bid, but a news report Monday says the Socialist leader will offer if elected to return to negotiations over a set of 23 economic and social issues aired in 2014 by former Catalan president Artur Mas, but rejected at the time by President Mariano Rajoy of the conservative Popular Party (PP).
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