- The President and Minister Serret meet with the president of the Chamber of Representatives of the Republic of Colombia on the second day of their trip to Latin America
The President of the Government of Catalonia, Pere Aragonès i Garcia, accompanied by the Catalan Minister for Foreign Action and European Union, Meritxell Serret, met this afternoon with the President of the House of Representatives of the Republic of Colombia, David Racero, at the Capitolio Nacional, the seat of the Congress of the Republic of Colombia. President Aragonès, in an appearance after the meeting, affirmed that "Catalonia and Colombia are two peoples united by fraternity, justice, democracy and the search for peace".
The head of the Catalan Government took advantage of his speech to send "a fraternal embrace from the people of Catalonia to all the citizens of Colombia and to all the institutions of the Republic of Colombia". In the words of Catalonia's President, the new Colombian government and the new House of Representatives are "an opportunity to strengthen the historic ties between the Colombian nation and the Catalan nation", adding that "we place ourselves at their disposal to strengthen these ties". "We hope that the change that has begun moves steadily forward, which has in the people and institutions of Catalonia an ally for all the future challenges Colombia may face", he concluded.
President Aragonès stressed the Catalan Government's desire to accompany the Republic of Colombia in "the peace agenda, and also in the sphere of cultural, economic and scientific relations", because "the challenges facing the Colombian people are also the challenges facing the Catalan people, who are pursuing the same values: to live on a planet where all human beings are guaranteed dignity and justice, where there is shared prosperity and where we respect the earth on which we live".
The President of the Government of Catalonia valued "very positively" Racero's proposal to set up an amity group between the chambers of Catalonia and Colombia and said he would pass it on to the Parliament of Catalonia.
David Racero has been President of the Colombian House of Representatives since the 2022 legislative elections and is part of the Pacto Histórico coalition led by Colombian President Gustavo Petro. As President of the Lower House of the Colombian Congress, Racero has done important work in promoting good governance and transparency, especially on issues of irregular contracting and environmental and economic issues.