President expresses 'support to the family of Navalny, murdered in Russia'

President Pere Aragonès conveyed a message of solidarity on Sunday in the wake of the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in an Arctic prison on Friday. 

"I want to express my support to the family, to the political movement, and to the wider circle of the oppositionist Navalny, who was murdered this week in a detention center in Russia." 

Aragonès also expressed "Catalonia's solidarity with Ukraine," ahead of the two-year anniversary of Russia's large-scale invasion of its neighbor.  

The Catalan president added that he stands with citizens "inside Russia who are fighting against Putin's regime" and "defend democracy in their country against this tyranny." 

Meeting with Minister-President of Flanders

Aragonès made these statements after meeting with the Minister-President of Flanders, Jan Jambon, at the Palau de la Generalitat in Barcelona on Sunday, where the Catalan president thanked Jambon for giving his support to efforts to make Catalan an official EU language. 

"We are very sensitive to demands on recognizing languages," Jambon said, saying that Dutch-speakers in Flanders had to fight for language rights and recognition with Belgium. 

"Catalan is an official language within the Spanish state so it seems logical to me that Europe also recognizes" it, Jambon said. "We support the case of Catalan, Basque and Galician." 

Making the three languages official at the EU level was on the table at several meetings of EU foreign ministers during Spain's presidency of the Council of the European Union in the second half of 2023, but was not taken forward. 

Belgium now holds the rotating presidency and Jambon said he would make it "a personal engagement to see how we can make the recognition [of Catalan] evolve within the European context." 

President Aragonès thanked "the support and enthusiasm" of his Flanders counterpart. "What was not completed during the Spanish presidency, we hope that it will continue on the table and accelerate during the Belgian presidency," Aragonès said. 

Aragonès expects "green light" for amnesty next week 

The Catalan president also spoke to the media about the amnesty bill, saying he expects it to be given the "green light" next week and urging Spain's conservative People's Party to join the agreement if it wants "solutions" for Catalonia. 

"Every day that passes without amnesty is a day that repression continues," Aragonès said.