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The Catalan President and radical left CUP held a two-hours long meeting on Friday to rebuild trust after the CUP’s veto to the 2016 budget in June kept their relations frozen. Carles Puigdemont said “more coordination” and a “better exchange of information” between the government and its main ally in the Catalan Parliament is needed in order to move forward in the independence process. “The government needs parliamentary stability to move forward in our disconnection road map”, he said in an exclusive interview with the CNA. The Catalan President, who is facing a confidence vote on the 28th of September, added that Catalonia needs a budget and that it would be “nonsense” to vote ‘yes’ to the confidence ballot and then rebuff the government budget.

The new ‘Metropolis’ trains will be manufactured at the company factory in Santa Perpètua de Mogoda, in Barcelona. Alstom has signed a €200 million contract with Graña y Montero Ferrovías to supply 20 train sets (120 cars) for Line 1 of the Lima Metro, in Peru, and 19 additional new carriages to complete the existing train sets already in use on the line. The Catalan factory will design and manufacture the new carriages, which are inspired by the Barcelona Metro. With the new trains the Lima Metro will more than double its transportation capacity, from 20,000 passengers per hour to 48,000.

Sergi Marcén took office on Thursday with the aim of strengthening bilateral relations between Catalonia and the governments of the United Kingdom and Ireland. After the ‘Brexit’ result, Catalonia wants to improve its support and service to Catalan citizens and companies in the UK and Ireland. The new Head of Delegation held his first meeting with the Minster of Foreign Affairs Raül Romeva in Barcelona to analyse the main priorities of action. Marcén replaces Josep Manuel Suàrez, who retired last spring.

The Catalan President warned Spanish politicians on Thursday that the political deadlock will continue as long as they refuse to engage in constructive talks with Catalonia and consider the possibility of a referendum. “It’s a catch-22”, he said a day after Spanish interim president Mariano Rajoy lost his confidence vote in the Spanish Parliament. Puigdemont stated that 36 out of 47 Catalan MPs, all except those from PP and Ciutadans, voted against Rajoy and will do so again on Friday, when a second ballot is expected. “Anyone aspiring to become Spanish president should recognise the reality in Catalonia”, he said, adding that without a solution in Catalonia there won’t be a stable government in Spain.

Publishers released 11,348 titles in Catalan in 2015, according to a new study by the publishing industry that also shows that sales for books in this language amounted to €230 million. The Catalan publishing industry is in good health, as 43% of all books released in Spanish are also published in Catalonia, but figures could be improved, said the coordinator of ‘Catalan Book Week’, Joan Sala. In fact, the Association of Publishers in Catalan Language is “worried” because of a decline in child and teenage books sales. Its president, Montse Ayats, said that it is very important to attract young readers because reading improves a child’s school performance.

The annual rate of mortgage borrowing increased substantially in the last 12 months, thanks to increasing confidence in the economy. The average amount borrowed for a mortgage in Catalonia in June was €134,509, according to figures published by the National Institute of Statistics of Spain. This figure is higher than the average Spanish mortgage, which stands at €112,516. In total, the amount borrowed in Catalonia for mortgages in June was €559.7 million, a 72.7% increase in comparison to June 2015 and a 10.8% increase in comparison to May 2016. Up to 4,161 mortgages were sold in Catalonia in the first month of summer.

The leader of the People’s Party, Mariano Rajoy, lost two confidence votes in the Spanish Parliament this week with 170 votes in favour and 180 against. Spain will therefore continue to have an interim government after eight months of political standstill and amid growing speculation over a possible new election on Christmas Day. “I am not asking you to form a coalition, I am asking you to let me govern”, said Mariano Rajoy to the Socialist leader, Pedro Sánchez during a debate in Madrid. The PSOE, the radical left-wing coalition Unidos Podemos and the Catalan and Basque nationalists voted against the PP government plans, which had the support of liberal Ciutadans (C’s). But despite calls from Podemos´ leader in favour of an alternative left-wing coalition, the PSOE is unlikely to accept, as such a government would need the support of pro-independence parties in Catalonia.

The leader of the People’s Party (PP) stressed in Parliament that he represents the only “viable” option to form a “stable” government in Spain. “It is urgent for Spain to have a government as soon as possible, a government ready to act, to put an end to this democratic anomaly”, he said referring to the eight-month period of political deadlock in Madrid. The PP has the support of Ciutadans (C’s) and the Canary Islands nationalists, but their 170 seats fall short of the majority needed to form a government. The main opposition party, the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) will vote ‘no’ in the confidence vote scheduled for Wednesday, and so will Podemos and pro-Catalan independence parties ERC and PDC. As things stand, the PP does not have enough support for Rajoy to pass the confidence vote this week and Spain will continue without a functioning government.

Catalonia continues to be the most attractive destination for international tourists travelling to Spain. Up to 25.3% of all foreign visitors stay in Catalonia, according to figures published on Tuesday, which also show a 4.7% increase in the number of tourists between January and July 2016. The majority of international tourists staying in Catalonia are French (23.5%) and British (10.6%). In August, most regions within Catalonia have been fully booked, with figures suggesting better results than in summer 2015.

The leader of the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) described as a “waste of time” his meeting on Monday with conservative leader Mariano Rajoy. In a press conference in Madrid, Sánchez said that the Socialists will vote against a new Rajoy-led government. The People’s Party (PP) and Ciutadans (C’s) agreed on Sunday a 150-point plan to form a new Spanish government, but they do not have enough support in parliament. Rajoy will face a confidence vote on Wednesday, and a second one on Friday if the first ballot fails. According to Sánchez, the socialists cannot be blamed for the expected failure of Rajoy.

The Catalan government spokeswoman, Neus Munté, criticised on Monday the agreement between the conservative People’s Party (PP) and liberal Ciutadans (C’s), which includes a compromise to exchange the immersion education system in Catalonia, in place since the regaining of democracy, for a trilingual model. In a TV interview, Munté said that Catalonia won’t change “a single comma” of its school system, which she reminded is entrusted by law and attracts a “very broad consensus” in the country. According to Munté, C’s “changes its principles depending on which way the wind blows” in Spain, but has always kept intact its aim to “kill the immersion system” in Catalonia.

Up to 1,750 students from all around the world worked throughout the year on the design and construction of single-seater racing cars that performed on the famous Circuit de Catalunya on Sunday. Formula Student Spain was held in Montmeló to allow students to practice all the knowledge they have acquired at university while simulating a real situation. Students had to work as if they were part of a real company, looking for suppliers and sponsors, planning costs as well as designing and constructing the cars. The Minister of Business and Knowledge of Catalonia, Jordi Baiget, described the event as a much-needed activity to enhance interaction between industry and university.

The conservative People’s Party (PP) and the liberal Ciutadans sealed on Sunday an agreement that they hope will gain enough votes in the Spanish Congress to allow Mariano Rajoy to be appointed as Spanish president. The deal comes after a week of intense negotiations between the two parties and could put an end to an eight-month deadlock in Spain, which has been without a functioning government since December 2015. PP and C’s have agreed on a 150-point plan that includes economic, social and institutional measures. Amongst them, a controversial commitment to introduce a trilingual model in schools that would de facto suspend the current Catalan immersion system and frontal opposition to any kind of independence referendum.

He was the director of the prestigious ophthalmologist clinic Barraquer in Barcelona, founded in 1947 by his father and world-renowned doctor Ignasi Barraquer. Joaquim Barraquer was Professor of Eye Surgery at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and Honorary Professor and Doctor Honoris Causa at several other universities. He was a specialist in corneal transplants and eye surgery to treat cataracts, glaucoma and myopia.

Street art is capable of addressing very different people and contexts, and this year’s edition of FiraTàrrega is marked precisely by an ambition to overcome differences and explore the intercultural potential of art. ‘Manifesta’, a large format coproduction of the festival, is the latest creation from Bobskené. A fun and festive song that celebrates difference while mixing text, music and circus, and which audiences will be able to enjoy for the first time on the 8th of September. The text is a multilingual manifesto, written in Catalan, Spanish, French and English, that reflects the seven nationalities of the artists that take part in the performance. “The manifesto makes us question the times that we live in and invites us to relax, to arrive to ecstasy and end up dancing”, said the director of the performance, Ricard Soler i Mallol.