Catalan President Quim Torra was interviewed this evening on TV3, the Catalan public broadcaster, after sending a letter this afternoon to Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, in which he requested a “full lockdown” of Catalonia to slow the spread of COVID-19. “I don’t care about borders or flags; what I care about is people’s health and their lives,” he said.

The president said: “The Government of Catalonia has always act based on scientific criteria and expert advice.” The head of the executive stressed the importance of reducing the risk people are exposed to and curbing the spread of the virus. “What we’re talking about is people’s health and lives.” Faced with the Spanish government’s refusal to authorise and support a full lockdown of Catalonia, President Torra said: “We’ll continue to insist until we end up taking a step that’s inevitable, because with every hour that goes by, we’re losing opportunities to attack the virus. We need to take every possible measure to tackle this enormously complex situation.”

The head of the executive stressed the importance of a lockdown, paraphrasing the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, who said people were “dying by the thousands”. Torra said: “We’ll soon find ourselves in another scenario” in which a full lockdown of Catalonia will be “inevitable”.