French senator Calvet François, representative for the Eastern Pyrenees department which roughly corresponds to Northern Catalonia, has warned the French transport and ecological transition minister, Elisabeth Borne, that the French state's failure to keep railway and transport infrastructures up to standard might have unexpected consequences amongst his electorate.
El senador nordcatalà @CalvetFrancois es dirigeix a la ministra de Transports i la Transició ecològica per criticar l’abandonament de les infraestructures ferroviàries i de transport dient que “a força d’abandonar-nos l’Estat alimentarà l’independentisme”. https://t.co/03q6DEtLXj
— Pablo Bonat (@pablobonat) 5 de desembre de 2019
Translation:
"Northern California senator @CalvetFrancois addresses the French minister of transport and ecological transition to criticize the abandonment of railway and transport infrastructures, saying that "By abandoning us, the state will encourage pro-independence feeling." —Pablo Bonat
"By abandoning us, you will make independence support grow," said François, angry at the quality of the transport infrastructure in his Catalan-speaking department, just north of the Pyrenees. According to the senator, the Eastern Pyrenees department is "isolated" and the minister ignored it.
Northern Catalonia was ceded to the French state by Spain under the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659 in exchange for France's agreement to renounce any support for the Catalan Republic which had been declared in 1641.