Parliament speaker meets UN rapporteurs and Francophonie representative

The Catalan Parliament president, Roger Torrent, expressed his concerns about the current situation in Catalonia to some UN rapporteurs and the permanent representative of the Francophonie International Organization on Thursday. In the second and final day of his trip to Geneva, Switzerland, Torrent tackled the violation of fundamental rights that he believes Catalan citizens and the Parliament are subject to. His trip comes after the Spanish judiciary blocked the presidential bids of several Catalan MPs.

Torrent’s team did not reveal which rapporteurs he met with on Thursday, but they did confirm that the speaker had met the permanent representative of the Francophonie before the UN, Henri Eli Monceau. During the meeting, Torrent emphasized the need of “politically solving political conflicts,” something that he already brought up with Mona Rishmawi, a senior official for the UN Human Rights Council at a meeting on Wednesday. The Catalan parliament's highest representative also told Rishmawi that the institution she represents should become “involved” in finding a “political solution” for the Catalan situation, and in defending fundamental rights in Catalonia. 

Geneva offers mediation

Later on Thursday, the mayor of Geneva, Rémy Pagani, said he had offered his city to act as a mediator between Catalonia and Spain to find a “political” solution through “dialogue” when he met Torrent at Geneva city hall. The speaker welcomed the offer and said it showed that the Catalan case is a European affair and he hoped his Swiss visit would lead to a defense of “Catalonia’s fundamental rights” on behalf of the international community. After the meeting, Pagani told the press: “There is a solution. Here in Switzerland there are four languages, for example, and we all live together correctly. I do not know why Spain cannot do the same.”

Torrent thanked the mayor for his “very valuable” offer of mediation saying it was exactly the aim of his trip, looking for “the political involvement of Europe.” In fact, the Parliament speaker gave a positive assessment of his two-day trip to Geneva, which he said had served “to open channels of dialogue.” “This trip ends nothing, it is just beginning. We will no doubt continue on this path and will benefit from it. We want what is happening in Catalonia to be monitored,” he said, adding that “it is not an internal Catalan or Spanish issue, it is European. And that is why we are demanding Europe’s involvement.”