Government working for international 'mediation,' says foreign minister

The Catalan government is working with "discretion" to get international mediation in order to find a way out of the Catalan crisis, foreign minister Ernest Maragall said on Friday morning. 

He stated that the cabinet is aiming to involve mediators, who could be "certain countries, the European institutions, the United Nations and groups of prestigious people."

Maragall believes Spain is also working to make such mediation possible.

He said Madrid is trying to persuade the other EU members that "there is a new Socialist government willing to negotiate facing an uncompromising Catalan society."

Yet he emphasized that the Catalan executive has a "clear but not naïve" intention to engage in talks with Spain.