16.02.2022 - 14:46
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Actualització: 16.02.2022 - 15:46
Catalonia’s exiled President Carles Puigdemont presented today the international strategy of the Council for the Republic. The entity will set up a Free Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Catalonia to internationalize the Catalan case and achieve a solution to the political conflict with Spain through the right to self-determination.
Neus Torbisco-Casals, International law and human rights professor, and Adrià Alsina, journalist and professor, joined Puigdemont at the press conference held in the Brussels Press Club. Alsina explained that the role of the new ministry will be complementary of the existing Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Open Government and will only come into play when Spain forbids the action of this existing ministry.
Alsina also said that the ministry will have a network of representatives in key cities around the world, who will be in charge of weaving alliances and making the voice of Catalonia heard. For this reason, he encouraged the Catalan community living abroad to volunteer to take on this role.
Diplomatic network
Alsina said that the Council itself has also started searching for people with powerful profiles to assume this representation. “What we are doing is a diplomatic network, but it will work like any other ministry. There will be coordination, training and other aspects that we will explain soon”, he added.
The internationalization priorities in the political, judicial and civil society fields will be the denunciation of the repression and the violation of the rule of law by the Spanish state, the recognition of the right to self-determination of Catalonia, the validity of the 2017 independence referendum result and the subsequent independence declaration by the Parliament of Catalonia.
President Puigdemont insisted that the Council does not intend to replace the government of Catalonia: “We will come into action whenever Spain blocks the action of the Catalan Government. This is one of the missions of the Council for the Republic and we can do it without fear, without asking permission from anyone or being afraid of Spanish repression”.
