The leader of the anti-independence Ciudadanos (Cs) party in Catalonia, Inés Arrimadas, has stated that the Catalan president Quim Torra is "racist". In an event this Sunday in Barcelona before an audience of 600 people, she said that the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, "confused Catalonia with Torra the racist" and asserted that any municipal councillor in her party had more dignity and courage than the entire Catalan government put together.
Arrimadas also accused the other two major Spanish unionist parties, the PSOE and the PP, of having "sold out to the Catalans" and of relying on what she called "nationalists", arguing that Cs is the only centrist, moderate party with its hands clean enough to govern.
"The only one who could offer dignity to these silenced Catalans is Albert Rivera," she said, in reference to the Cs leader. She demanded that Pedro Sánchez be defeated at the ballot box, and that no Spanish prime minister should ever again depend on the "nationalists" to rule, but rather, should think about the common good, she said.
Ciudadanos' use of the term "nationalists" in the Spanish context refers only to Catalan and Basque parties, and despite the Cs party's embrace of the symbols and values of Spanish nationalism - such as at last week's rally of the Spanish right in Madrid - it does not acknowledge any contradiction in this.
Inés Arrimadas's vehement statements come the day after the visit of the Ciudadanos parliamentary group to Amer, hometown of Catalan president in exile, Carles Puigdemont. The visit focused on removal of yellow ribbons, which were replaced by village residents almost immediately, and included a press conference under the watchful eye of Carles Puigdemont - or at least of his likeness, illustrated on a banner hung in the town square.