Member of Parliament Sergi Sabrià on the King of Spain: “He should only come to Catalonia to apologize”

Vice President Aragonès reiterates that Catalonia has no king and denounces the role of a head of state who endorsed the police violence during the 2017 referendum

Catalonia has no king, and if the King of Spain is to come to Catalonia, it should be to apologize. This was the position defended by Esquerra Republicana on Wednesday in parliamentary session. Both the Vice President of the Government Pere Aragonès and the Chair of the Esquerra parliamentary group Sergi Sabrià criticized the visit to Barcelona that the Spanish monarch will make this week.

“A king who endorses police brutality? A king who endorses corruption? He should apologize to the victims of state violence, to dozens of pro-independence activists, to the citizens against whom the state has wreaked vengeance. It’s the only thing he should come and do it in Catalonia, but he won’t” Mr Sabrià warned.

Vice President Aragonès picked up from Mr Sabrià and reiterated that the Catalans have no king. In fact, neither Government nor Parliament, nor the Barcelona City Council will send institutional representations to the event the Spanish monarch will attend, accompanied by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. “It should make the monarch stop and think, that the three most important institutions in the country will decline to participate in a photo opportunity because we do not want to be linked with the head of state,” Mr Aragonés said.

Just hours before the visit, Mr Sabrià also described to Parliament “the grotesque episode” of the week in which the judiciary and the monarchy “licked each other’s wounds for not being able to share the stage at a judges’ appointment ceremony in Barcelona.” That episode concluded with a phone call between the king and the chair of the General Council of the Judiciary Carlos Lesmes, “which once again is so very revealing.” “What state are we facing and how necessary is the Republic,” Mr Sabrià added.

  Member of Parliament Sergi Sabrià on the King of Spain: “He should only come to Catalonia to apologize”

All this was pronounced after recalling that this week’s question time is not an ordinary session, since Catalonia now has no president as a result of the Supreme Court’s decision to disqualify President Quim Torra. During the debate, both Mr Aragonès and Mr Sabrià also expressed their full support for Tamara Carrasco, a pro-independence activist who was finally acquitted on Tuesday after two years of “repressive absurdity.” “It is a demonstration of the impunity of certain state powers that have been acting reprehensibly in Catalonia during the last years. This impunity is based on a triangle of repression: the senior judiciary, the Spanish police with the paramilitary Guardia Civil, and all presided over by the head of state, King Felipe de Borbón,” Mr Aragonés concluded.