Rajoy to meet opposition leaders to discuss Catalonia this week

Spanish president Mariano Rajoy will on Tuesday meet opposition leader Pedro Sánchez, head of Spain’s PSOE socialist party, to discuss the situation in Catalonia. On the agenda will be Quim Torra’s appointment as Catalan president and the issue of restoring self-rule to Catalonia. Meanwhile, the unionist Ciudadanos (Cs) party has confirmed that its leader, Albert Rivera, will also meet Rajoy on Thursday morning.

About Tuesday’s meeting, a PSOE spokesman said on Monday that each time Sánchez has met the Spanish president he has called for political solutions to the crisis in Catalonia rather than draconian measures, such as imposing direct rule via Article 155 of the Constitution or the prosecutions of Catalan pro-independence leaders in the courts. “The government has to accept that it has the responsibility to find political solutions,” said the PSOE spokesman.