Felipe VI receives this Wednesday at the Zarzuela Palace the President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, This is the first time since 2015 that the king has met a head of government.The meeting represents another gesture in the normalisation of relations between the head of state and the Generalitat and shows, according to the government spokesperson, Sílvia Paneque, “the recovery of institutional normality” in Catalonia.
A normality that comes after the period in which this institution was governed by the independentists, who in recent years have shown their rejection of the Crown due to the position of Felipe VI in the face of the separatist challenge. The king was already with Illa on August 29two weeks after his inauguration as the new president of the government, when Felipe VI visited Barcelona, an occasion in which he welcomed him with the official greeting, something that the pro-independence presidents had avoided.
The last time a president of the Generalitat visited Zarzuela after taking office was in January 2013, when Juan Carlos I met Artur Mas a month after his appointment by Parliament. Two years later, in July 2015, Felipe VI In Zarzuela he met the then leader of CiU, Artur Mas, even if it was within the framework of the contacts of the head of state with the heads of the administration.
Mas’ successors at the head of the Generalitat, Carles Puigdemont (2016-2017), Quim Torra (2018-2020) and Pere Aragonés (2021-2024) declined to be received by the Head of State, coinciding in a political stage marked by the Challenge of Independence. “This government wants the best for Catalonia and for the Catalans, when we want to move forward and achieve the objectives, it seems to us that the best and most optimal way is to maintain good relations with all the institutions,” said the spokesman on the eve of the meeting between the King and Illa.
