The former president of the Generalitat, Carles Puigdemont, has confirmed this Saturday that on Monday he will be present at an act of homage to the composer Pau Casals on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his death that will be held in Prada del Conflent (France), according to the note issued by his office today.
The event will be held specifically in the abbey of Sant Miquel de Cuixà in this southern French town close to the border with Spain, within the framework of the 55th Catalan Summer University (UCE). This will thus be Puigdemont’s first trip outside of Belgium after the TGUE withdrew his parliamentary immunity as a member of the European Parliament on July 5.
Puigdemont will coincide with the also presidents and former presidents of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, Quim Torra, José Montilla and Jordi Pujol. Only Pasqual Maragall, for health reasons, and Artur Mas, due to a family commitment, will not be able to attend. The former president’s office has warned that he will arrive around 12 noon and that he will not make any statements before or after the event.
The act in Prada coincides in time with a political moment in which Puigdemont is once again the protagonist, especially for his role in the Junts negotiations with the PSOE. The votes of Puigdemont’s party are decisive so that the socialist leader Pedro Sánchez can once again be sworn in as Prime Minister.
Just today, through a tweet in X, Puigdemont lamented that the Spanish political and media system “continues with the Iberian gauge, to put it in some way.” The expresident has assured that “they have not yet understood that, to go around the world, they either change trains at the Portbou station (Girona) and thus can circulate throughout Europe, or they take the high speed and cross the Pertús (France) through a tunnel that is as expensive as it is underused”.
In what seems to be a metaphor for the upcoming negotiations, Puigdemont has warned that this trip “is up (and it goes up, too), not down”, and has indicated that if what they want is to stay as they are, they will not they need to leave home, according to their own words.
