Catalan president to attend Mediterranean Games despite Spain’s king presence

Catalan president Quim Torra will attend the opening ceremony of the Mediterranean Games in Tarragona on Friday, despite the presence of the king of Spain. The pro-independence leader considered avoiding the event after his petition to meet with the monarch to discuss the political situation was rejected.

“I will be there today, these Games are in Tarragona, in Catalonia, and have been organized and paid for in our country,” said Torra in a press conference. “It’s our home, they won’t push the president and the government of the country out of our home.”

Torra urged king Felipe VI to “apologize” for not condemning police violence against independence supporters during last October’s referendum, which Spain deemed illegal. The Catalan president said he was waiting for a gesture from the king, but it never came.

No pictures together

“I won’t take a picture with the Spanish king, the situation is serious, we are not interested in pictures with those that condone and promote repression,” he said.

Torra announced that he is planning to give the king the Catalan Ombudsman’s reports on police violence during the referendum and the criminal “persecution” of pro-independence leaders.

However, the Catalan president also said that no longer would he or any of his ministers attend any function directly organized by the Spanish crown, nor would they invite the king to any events organized by the Catalan government.

In a joint letter also signed by Torra’s predecessors—including Carles Puigdemont, who is currently in Germany awaiting a decision on his extradition to Spain—the Catalan president offered to meet with Felipe, but the monarch forwarded the request to Spain’s president Pedro Sánchez, and the petition was turned down.

Respect the king

Teresa Cunillera, the Sánchez government’s most senior representative in Catalonia, said the event’s inauguration would be Torra’s “first occasion to show institutional respect” since he was elected as head of the Catalan government a month ago.

The main opposition party in Catalonia, unionist Ciutadans (Cs), accused the Catalan government of disrespecting the king and only being president “to pro-independence Catalans.”

A highly unpopular figure in Catalonia, a recent survey by the Center of Opinion Studies (CEO) found that almost 80% of Catalans disapprove of King Felipe. On a scale of 10, some 60% of those surveyed gave him a 0.

Local authorities in dozens of Catalan towns have declared the king persona non grata, and the northern city of Girona even rejected hosting an awards ceremony linked to the crown for the first time ever.

Other controversies involving the king in recent months include the seizing of whistles in the Copa del Rey football final in Madrid to avoid him being booed, and Catalans protesting his arrival at the Mobile World Congress with the anthem of the Spanish Republic.