Motorbike world champion of 125cc Marc Márquez answers: “More than just football, there are other sports such as hockey, basketball and motorcycling that we are very good at”.
Laia Fàbregas, a Barcelona born writer, says: “Barcelona is much more than that. There are a lot of tourists and different types of people that enjoy living here”.
Lluís Gavaldà, lead singer of Els Pets answers Lucy from Glasgow: “Catalonia has very extensive musical richness, with traditional, classic, jazz and pop music in Catalan”.
Sergi Belbel, artistic director of the National Theatre of Catalonia (TNC): “To understand Catalans, the first thing is to understand the concepts of ‘seny’ and ‘rauxa’”.
For chef 7 Michelin-star, Santi Santamaria, with 2 restaurants in Catalonia, 1 in Dubai and 1 in Singapur, tapas are for tourists. “We prefer more to deeply experience dishes”, he states.
The president of the Institute of Catalan Studies, Salvador Giner, responds, “Catalan is spoken by 10 million people in 4 different countries”.
Miquel Valls, president of the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce, says, “Catalonia is the first economic region in Spain, it makes up 19% of the GDP and has solidarity with the rest of the regions”.
Tomàs Molina, Catalan public television's weatherman, answers: “It only rains 100 days a year here, but when it does, it rains a lot, almost like Monsoon season in India.”
Justo Molinero, born in Andalucía and founder of a radio and TV station in Catalonia, answers: “Catalans are very serious people, but that doesn’t mean they don’t like to party and make jokes”.
Aleksandra Tomanic, a German with Balkan roots, tells CNA what she thinks about Catalonia and nationalism. Muriel Casals, president of the main NGO promoting Catalan culture and expert in International Relations, responds to Tomanic.
The “export vocation” and “good management of economic, tourism and trade competences” will ease Catalonia’s recovery from the crisis. This is the opinion of José Manuel González-Páramo, member of the European Central Bank’s Executive Board.
In the first 9 months of 2010, more than 10 million tourists chose Catalonia as their vacation destination. After the Balearic Islands, Catalonia is the most visited territory on Spain.
Over 1,600 people have signed a virtual petition for a Catalan translation of twitter. The initiative was started by the Catalan journalist Albert Cuesta.
Catalonia must be able to co-manage key infrastructures such as Barcelona’s Airport and receive a special economic agreement like the one the Basque Country and Navarra have. Artur Mas, President of the Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Party (CiU), explained the main line of his economic programme today. Mas sent a message out to Prime Minister Zapatero (PSOE) and the Conservative People’s Party (PP).
The Catalan Group on the Future of Europe sent their conclusions to the Reflection Group on the Future of Europe before the Reflection Group presented their results to the European Council. Today’s event was a way to foster debate in Catalonia on these issues and a way to show the results from the analysis by the Catalan Group on the Future of Europe. President of the Reflection Group on the Future of Europe 2020-2030 (and former Spanish PM) Felipe González. has summed up the conclusions.