Torra calls for ‘urgent’ talks with new Spanish president

“Will we get the Socialist party that wants to decriminalize the holding of the referendum or the one that voted for direct rule?” Catalan president Quim Torra on Monday addressed the press outside Estremera prison in the Madrid region, where he visited Catalan officials being held behind bars while awaiting trial for their part in last year’s push for independence.

Commenting on his upcoming meeting with the head of the PSOE Socialist party and Spain’s new prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, president Torra said he was very keen to hear the plans that Sánchez has for Catalonia. “It is urgent that we meet, that we sit and negotiate,” said the president.

During his two-hour prison visit, Torra spoke to Josep Rull, Jordi Turull, Joaquim Forn, Oriol Junqueras and Raül Romeva, all ministers in Carles Puigdemont’s cabinet dismissed by the Spanish government when direct rule from Madrid was imposed in October following a declaration of independence in the Catalan parliament.

Talking outside the gates of the prison, Torra gave thanks to the jailed officials for their “dignity” and he again expressed his “commitment” to reinstating the deposed executive. Torra also confirmed the official hand-over of ministerial portfolios to the newly appointed ministers would soon be allowed to go ahead from prison.  

Referring to the political situation in Catalonia, Torra insisted that the “only sovereignty” he recognizes is that of the Catalan Parliament, and that the starting point for any talks with the new Spanish government will be the referendum and the declaration of independence that followed: “we will move forward from there,” he said, calling for talks that are “government to government.”