The very new head of the ‘foreign policy’ of the Catalan Generalitat, the Minister Victòria Alsina, announced a few days ago the opening of a new office in Slovenia, which will join the network of ’embassies’ that Catalonia extends throughout Europe and the world. Invited to the investiture of the new Slovenian head of government, Robert Golob, Alsina thus confirmed what is a priority of the Executive chaired by Pere Aragonès: “foreign action”. If during the years prior to the events of 2017, the foreign delegations became the loudspeaker of the independence cause, after the closure decreed with the application of 155, the ‘post-procés’ stage has separated them in part from the media focus, but not precisely because the Government has renounced them, quite the opposite.
Alsina’s soft ways are reflected in a certain declarative caution, as he demonstrated the last time he summoned the accredited consuls in Barcelona, an appointment that usually served to launch proclamations in the face of the evident discomfort of those summoned. On other occasions, by contrast, staff from the ’embassies’ have not missed an opportunity to denigrate the image of Spain, as Alsina herself did in relation to the Pegasus case. The Catalan delegations open with the plácet of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The one in Slovenia is part of the new package of delegations that the ‘Govern’ plans to open before the end of the year –Japan, South Korea, Senegal, South Africa, Brazil and Andorra–, which will be added to the 14 in operation. When the new venues were announced, sources from the ministry pointed out to this newspaper that their cost for 2022 reached 12 million. This amount represents 38% more than what the Government allocated in 2021 and 2020, 8.2 million in each year. For the whole of Foreign Action – which includes Cooperation – 28 million are allocated, an increase of 55%.
Step by step, the Catalan ‘chancellor’ is weaving a small network of relationships. During her visit to Slovenia, she held institutional meetings. Catalonia’s interest in Slovenia lies in the intention of reproducing the political and social circumstances of rupture, despite the fact that the independence of Slovenia can hardly be compared with the Catalan secessionist project. Slovenia’s independence cost an armed confrontation with Serbia, the Ten Day War, which forced the EU to intervene.
