On the same day as the dialogue table between the Spanish and Catalan governments is to meet, this Wednesday, Catalonia's president in exile Carles Puigdemont will be in Paris. Invited by a group of French deputies and senators, he will be in the capital for two days, and will visit the National Assembly on Thursday to explain the repression in Catalonia and the struggle to defend human rights, according to the office of the former Catalan leader.
Two day visit to French capital
The former Catalan president and MEP, who lives in exile in Waterloo, Belgium, and whose parliamentary immunity is suspended, will be in Paris on Wednesday and Thursday. Invited by a group of French deputies and senators, he will visit the National Assembly on Thursday to denounce the repression affecting his country.
The day before, Wednesday, he will be in Paris to attend the special screening of the Quebec-produced documentary on Catalonia, Avec un sourire, la révolution!, directed by Alexandre Chartrand, where he plans to take part in a subsequent discussion.
Support from French deputies and senators
Responses from French deputies and senators to the Spanish state's repression of the independence movement have been made on several occasions.
Forty-one French senators from different political groups signed a manifesto in March 2019, calling for respect for the fundamental rights and freedoms of Catalonia. In the text they denounced the repression being applied and called for the restoration of conditions for dialogue to find political solutions.
A few months later, in September 2019, about fifty members of the National Assembly, representing broad range of parties across the ideological spectrum, published a text in which they expressed concern about the situation of the political prisoners and the need to find a democratic solution.
Skepticism from Junts
The Junts party, which Puigdemont leads, has never made a secret of the skepticism with which it looks upon the dialogue table meeting to be held this week, and it announced earlier today that it would not say who its representatives will be in the negotiation until it was known whether Pedro Sánchez was to attend the meeting. In fact, this Monday morning, given the reluctance of Pedro Sanchez to clarify his presence, Junts demanded that, if Sánchez is not there, Catalan president Aragonés should not go either.
While awaiting for Sánchez to confirm his participation this evening in an interview with Spanish public television, Puigdemont has already announced what his agenda will be.
In the main image, Carles Puigdemont in an archive image in Waterloo / Efe