The new speaker of the Catalan Parliament, Roger Torrent, has this morning asked Catalan Parliament Carles Puigdemont to enable his investiture as president to allow for the formation of an effective government as soon as possible. Torrent met Puigdemont and the ministers in exile with him in Belgium. The meeting couldn't be held in the building of the Catalan delegation to the Belgian capital in the face of opposition from the Spanish government. In the end, it took place at the Centre Maurits Coppieters.
"What the country needs, and what I will try to bring about, is for there to be a government as soon as possible, [an] effective [one], which can start work immediately. Like this we will recover our institutions", Torrent said after the meeting.
He said that Puigdemont did not confirm whether or not he will attend the Catalan Parliament in person next Tuesday for the presidential investiture debate, but insisted on the need to "cast out [article] 155 from the political landscape of the country and the institutions".
The speaker emphasised his commitment to defend the political rights of all the Catalan chamber's 135 deputies, including those in Belgium or in preventive detention without bail.
Torrent said such a meeting between the first and second most senior leaders in the country should be "normal and desirable" to discuss a topic like the investiture. He admitted that, instead, the meeting did not actually take place in completely normal circumstances. Apart from the speaker having to pay for the trip to meet the president of Catalonia from his own pocket, the Spanish government ordered that the Catalan delegation to Brussels, where the meeting was due to be held, be closed this morning.
The speaker described the "anomalous and scandalous" situation as "very serious". He charged the Parliament's legal services with analysing the situation as he believes fundamental rights of the president, the ministers and the Parliament they represent to have been violated.