Torra visits imprisoned officials

On May 21 at 9:30am the Catalan president Quim Torra arrived at the Estremera prison in the Madrid region to visit incarcerated officials. Those held in this center include Oriol Junqueras, Joaquim Forn, Josep Rull, Jordi Turull and Raül Romeva, all deposed members of Puigdemont’s cabinet at the time when Catalonia declared independence.

Two of the individuals, Jordi Turull and Josep Rull, were nominated just days ago as members of Quim Torra’s cabinet to be, to retake the posts they were dismissed from with the application of Article 155.

After Estremera, Quim Torra is set to visit Alcalá-Meco, where former Parliament speaker Carme Forcadell and deposed minister Dolors Bassa are being held. Then, in the afternoon, he will go to the Soto del Real jail to see grassroots leaders Jordi Cuixart and Jordi Sànchez. 

Rull and Turull reiterate will to become ministers again

Deposed and once again nominated ministers Jordi Turull and Josep Rull have highlighted their will to retake their posts, as communicated to the press by Torra after his visit to them. "The ministers intend to be in Barcelona on Wednesday to take their oaths," said the Catalan president. 

About Turull and Rull, the head of government further divulged that "they are well, they are strong, they're motivated, and they know their cause is just and honorable," adding that "in no other country in Europe" would they be held in pre-trial prison for what they did. 

Torra further insisted on calling for dialogue, both from Mariano Rajoy, as with "the Spanish opposition parties." He additionally urged "that politics return to politics and that dialogue return to dialogue." 

Spain not to publish nominations

The visit follows the Spanish government deciding that they would not publish Quim Torra’s nominations for ministers—including those of Rull and Turull, as well as ministers abroad—in the government gazette, using their control of it through Article 155. This effectively blocks the nomination decree from advancing to the next step.

One of the ministers abroad, Lluís Puig, recently nominated once more as minister, has written a letter to the vice president of the European Commission Frans Timmermans, asking for an intervention by the EU official. Meanwhile, the lawyers of Rull and Turull plan to officially ask for their clients to leave prison in order to take oath as ministers again.