Catalan president Carles Puigdemont has underlined to Swiss public broadcaster Radio Télévision Suisse the strong influence the Franco regime still has on Spanish politics and has attacked king Felipe VI. "The person who named [Felipe's] father as king of Spain was Franco. It's not a secret, it's public. There's still some inheritance. I don't know if the world knows that Franco's mausoleum still exists in Spain, paid for by public money and visited by thousands of people every year", he said (video below), referring to the "Valle de los Caídos" (Valley of the Fallen).
Puigdemont said that he had had a good relationship with Felipe VI when the monarch was prince of Girona and the politician was the city's mayor. "He knows Catalonia well and doesn't speak Catalan badly," he said. "I don't know what happened so that in October the king would appear so violently on television", he added, referring to the controversial speech the king made following the independence referendum.
According to the president, Felipe VI has lost all authority over the Catalan people, because the Spanish Constitution says he has to play the role of arbitrator. "On the other hand, he's broken all possibility that Catalonia should feel close to the monarchy. The king has lost Catalonia. I don't know why he's done it," said Puigdemont.
The president confirmed that he plans to form a Council of the Republic in Brussels and added that currently he is the "legitimate president" of Catalonia.
Puigdemont defined himself as a "man of order, supporter of human rights" and admitted that if Spain were organised into a plurinational system akin to Switzerland "it could convince the majority" of the Catalan people. He also said he doesn't plan to move from Belgium, for example to Switzerland, because he already enjoys separation of powers and full freedom of movement where he is.