The Catalan president in exile, Carles Puigdemont, and the speaker of the Catalan Parliament, Roger Torrent, have wanted to make a show this Monday of unity in the independence movement with a meeting in Waterloo. At the end of their meeting, they made a joint appearance before the media in which they lamented the upsurge of Vox in yesterday's Andalusian election and urged Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez to take action and show which side he's on. "Sánchez has to decide if he wants to mark a clear line or if he wants to open the door to the far right," said Torrent.
After Vox yesterday won twelve seats in the Andalusian Parliament, Puigdemont was critical of the suggestions from some quarters that the independence movement was to blame for the growth of the far right. He said that the movement has been the "first line of defence against fascism". "[The one] who opened the door, who has approved the Spanish far right was the one who has supported it in its banner and legal strategy", he said, referring to PP and Cs, but also to some extent PSOE, who he noted didn't "pull faces" at article 155. He also blamed the king and his speech on 3rd October last year for Vox's new-found popularity.
Torrent, who has also visited the Flemish Parliament in his trip to Belgium, said that he's found a "common and widespread position in Europe in the face of the authoritarian drift of the Spanish state" and that that is "making Europe's institutions uncomfortable".
Also in their meeting, the two Catalan politicians expressed their support for their colleagues in pretrial detention who have embarked on a hunger strike. Just today, two more, Joaquim Forn and Josep Rull joined the protest.