The president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, has asked the Catalan political parties for “responsibility” to achieve an agreement “as broad as possible” on the Catalan educational model. During his visit to the European Parliament in Brussels, he has also demanded from the Spanish government that the espionage of pro-independence politicians through the Pegasus program has “political consequences” and has called for greater transparency in the investigation.
The Catalan leader has gone to the Belgian capital to meet with representatives of JuntsxCat, ERC, En Comú Podem and PSC, whom he has urged to “continue working” to shield the language immersion model of the Catalan school. In addition, he has assured that he will be involved in the process: “I will do everything in my power to make it so,” he has pointed out.
The Government is preparing a new law that includes an explicit rejection of the distribution of languages by percentages and faces the ruling of the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia that requires 25% of classes to be taught in Spanish in Catalan schools. The comuns are studying the new ERC and Junts proposal, while the PSC rejects it.
Regarding the next meeting of the dialogue table between the Government and the Generalitat, the Catalan leader has insisted that he is open to meeting Pedro Sánchez, but has asked that it not be just for “a photo”. “It is necessary that explanations, transparency, assumption of responsibilities and guarantees of non-repetition be given,” he insisted in relation to the cases of espionage through Pegasus on independence leaders, including Aragonès himself.
Asked about the return of King Emeritus Juan Carlos I to Spain, the president has criticized the monarch’s “red carpet” return in the face of the situation of “political exiles” such as Carles Puigemont and Junts MEPs. In his opinion, Juan Carlos I must “assume all his responsibilities” and has denounced that the Prosecutor’s Office archives the ongoing investigations: “It shows that in terms of democratic quality and assumption of responsibilities, the Spanish state leaves much to be desired.”
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