Arrimadas 'worried' about new Spanish president's willingness to meet with Catalan leader

The leader of the opposition in Catalonia is not happy about the new Spanish president's plans to meet with the Catalan president Quim Torra, and won't meet Torra herself, she has said. Inés Arrimadas explained that she is "worried" about Socialist Pedro Sánchez's plans to meet with the newly-elected leader of the country.

"He won't meet with Catalonia, but with separatism," she warned, refusing such talks. According to Arrimadas, unionist Catalans are now "unprotected" because Spanish direct rule over Catalonia has been lifted and pro-independence parties are back in power in Barcelona. "How will Sánchez defend us from separatism?" she asked.

The Cs leader added that she won't meet the Catalan president as long as he keeps a yellow ribbon in solidarity with jailed and exiled politicians on the government headquarters' balcony. Arrimadas described the new Catalan government as "xenophobic and racist".

She also explained that she is 'worried' about some Socialists leaders talking about "pardoning" Catalan leaders currently in jail and even rejected opening discussions on the 2006 Catalan Statute of Autonomy. The legal text, challenged by the People's Party in the Constitutional Court and subsequently suspended, was an attempt by a majority of Catalan parties to find reach an agreement to continue within Spain. Its suspension is considered to be one of the main reasons behind the rise of  support for independence in Catalonia.