Torra blames Spain for deadlock: ‘Someone left the negotiating table, and it was not us’

Catalan president Quim Torra has blamed Spain and the government led by Pedro Sánchez for the standstill in the talks to find a way out of the independence crisis. "Someone left the negotiating table, and it was not us," he said.

On Tuesday, the head of the pro-independence government in Catalonia accounted for the first year of his troubled presidency, which came about after months of direct rule from Madrid—a reaction to a referendum and a declaration of independence in the fall of 2017.

Torra credited his government for putting the administration back on track after the suspension of self-rule, which he says caused "great losses" to Catalan finances.

While Torra has repeatedly been accused of government paralysis, he put down criticism claiming that Catalonia is "back on the move and ready".