The meetings yielded an investment to expand Barcelona’s El Prat airport, but they have exacerbated divisions between Catalonia’s governing pro-independence parties: the moderate Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) supports dialogue as an eventual route to independence; the hard-line Together for Catalonia (JxCat) wants independence sooner and belives dialogue will not deliver it.
The prospect of major economic projects for Catalonia is boosting the prominence of employment and the environment in Catalan politics.
Support for independence will remain high but it will lose priority as a popular concern in the short- to medium-term.
The ERC, which provides parliamentary support to Sanchez’s government in Madrid, is likely to support the 2022 budget.
