Without a doubt, it was the most unexpected conversation. The president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, held a dozen events and meetings during these two days of official trip to Brussels that culminated with a reception in the Generalitat delegation before members of the delegation and diplomatic staff. Before giving his speech, Illa, who had just had a meeting with Catalan students in Brussels, met in the lobby Lluís Puig, former councilor of the Generalitat, who has lived in Brussels for seven years to avoid being tried in Spain for he processes and that the amnesty law has been pending since this summer.
Accompanied by his wife, Puig had a brief talk with Illa, lasting just two minutes, and at the conclusion he seemed emotional. Afterwards, he looked into the room where the event was being held and left. The Government did not want to give details of the conversation it had. The Delegation of the Generalitat systematically invites all Catalans residing in Brussels to its events and, therefore, the invitation reached, according to the same sources, both former president Carles Puigdemont and Toni Comín. This summer, in an interview with this newspaper, Puig confessed that he couldn’t wait to return to Catalonia.
Puig’s presence at the headquarters contrasts with the anger that Puigdemont has shown when accusing Illa of not wanting to meet him during his visit to Brussels when he resides in Waterloo. “It’s not that he can’t: he doesn’t want to,” said the former president in a long message on the network. Comín has also accused Illa, in an interview on Catalunya Ràdio, of pretending that “she reconciles but in reality divides.” The president has maintained for days that he will meet with Puigdemont “when it is time” and that he has great respect for him as a deputy, former president and leader of Junts. And he repeatedly demands that the judiciary respect the legislature and apply the amnesty without delay.
With the motto that Catalonia is back to the European institutions, Ila has culminated her trip in a reception at the Delegation of the Generalitat to the EU in Brussels now directed by Esther Borràs. In his speech. He thanked the presence of the Spanish ambassador in Belgium and the two permanent ambassadors of Spain to the United Nations. They did not go to the delegation during the process and they did so for the first time during the celebration of this last Diada, already with the socialist Government. “The central message of the Government is that we want cooperation and not confrontation,” he stated.
On Monday, the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) suspended the trial that was to be held against Puig in the case of the Sijena works. The Court allowed Puig to testify electronically from a judicial headquarters in Belgium, but the Prosecutor’s Office of that country alleged that he could not be reached and was not answering his cell phone.
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