“The future of Catalonia and Spain, and the quality of democracy in Europe is at stake.” This is how Catalan president Quim Torra ended his speech at the Swiss University of Geneva on Wednesday night, in which he also called for international mediation.

The mediation between Catalonia and Spain, claimed Torra, “is needed in order to find a political solution” to the situation and to make sure “it is complied with by Madrid afterward.”

“How can we trust a government that protects a king, that instead of being a referee, behaved last year like a hooligan with a crown?” asked Torra. Asserting that it is “his will and the will of [his] government to find a political solution based on the right of self-determination” he however lamented that “the Spanish political class is not at all open to it.” This, the Catalan president expressed, “cannot be an excuse for international actors” to not intervene.