The Catalan president in exile, Carles Puigdemont, has reacted strongly against the nomination of Josep Borrell as the new Spanish foreign minister by Pedro Sánchez.
Puigdemont jokingly asked on Twitter whether "bringing back personalities from another time who have stood out in the escalation of hatred is the gesture they had thought of to send us a message of fraternal de-escalation".
The president's message seems aimed at those who had interpreted Sánchez's arrival to power as an opportunity for an easing of tensions between the Spanish and Catalan governments.
Els apologetes en diuen, cofois i pomposos, "un temps nou". Rescatar perfils d'un altre temps que s'han significat en l'escalada de l'odi, és el gest que tenien pensat per enviar-nos un missatge de fraternal desescalada? https://t.co/AuYOm4u1V0
— Carles Puigdemont (@KRLS) June 4, 2018
Translation: The apologists are calling it, proudly and pompously, "a new time". Is bringing back personalities from another time who have stood out in the escalation of hatred the gesture they had thought of to send us a message of fraternal de-escalation?
Borrell, historically aligned with the most centralist wing of PSOE and PSC has, in recent months, increased his reputation as an opponent of Catalan independence. He sparked controversy last year by commenting that before healing its wounds, Catalonia has to be "disinfected".