Carles Puigdemont and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Institutional Relations and Transparency, Raül Romeva, met on Monday with the former Prime Minister of Italy and former President of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, in Bologna, where this morning the President of the Catalan Government inaugurated the city’s annual Children’s Book Fair alongside the Fair’s president, Franco Boni, Antimo Cesaro, Secretary to the Ministry of Heritage and Culture, and the city’s mayor, Virginio Merola.

 

The head of the Catalan Government labelled the meeting as “very cordial and friendly” and noted the “great interest” shown by the former Italian Prime Minister with regards to the Catalan political process. In this respect, and contrary to the Rajoy administration’s opinion, the political process “is not a domestic, internal or unreal issue”, he explained “but something palpable, which is growing in terms of international attention”.

 

“It reaffirms the same thing that was clear on my visit to the United States last week, which is that outside of the Spanish state there is a clear interest to understand what is happening in Catalonia” Puigdemont expressed to members of the press. Furthermore, and in reference to the attitude maintained by the Spanish government, the President argued that “those who have the responsibility to come up with political solutions would do well to sit down at the table and, at the very least, ask the same questions that our international partners are asking”.

 

During the inauguration, the President also highlighted the importance of Catalonia and the Balearic Islands being the Guests of Honour at this year’s Festival and how the international recognition also “helps us to explain that our movement has no ethnic or economically selfish basis” but instead is a “transversal movement, which is based on the very modern notion of civility and civilization”, he affirmed.