The President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, shook hands with King Felipe VI this Thursday in Barcelona in a climate of cordiality unprecedented in Catalonia for years from a head of the Catalan Executive. The inauguration of the Copa América sail was the scene of the reestablishment of relations between the government and the Royal House, broken by the process since 2017.
Less than a month after his inauguration, Illa greeted the monarch at an official event, in the renovated Olympic Port of Barcelona, an urban heritage of Barcelona in 1992, a gesture that the last Catalan presidents had avoided, absenting themselves from receptions to the monarch.
The new president thus recovers an image that had not been seen for more than ten years, following the rise of the process, and thus normalizes the relations of the Generalitat with the Royal House. After the king’s speech against the 1-O referendum, in October 2017, the independence movement categorically rejected any relationship with the monarch and its visits to Catalonia were marked by the rudeness of the president of the government, Quim Torra, and even of the then mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau.
Since 2021, President Pere Aragonès has remained cold towards the monarchy, always avoiding formal receptions, although in recent years he has greeted the king at events such as the Mobile World Congress.
During his visit this Thursday to Barcelona, in addition to Illa, the mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, the Minister of Industry and Tourism, Jordi Hereu, the government delegate in Catalonia, Carlos Prieto, the Minister of Sports of the Generalitat , Berni Álvarez, or the new chief commissioner of Mossos d’Esquadra, Miquel Esquius.
After the greetings, the delegation visited the Gregal dock of the Olympic Port, which hosts some of the youth and women’s teams of the sailing competition, during a visit that lasted half an hour. Afterwards, they went to the Drassanes of Barcelona, to the Maritime Museum, to participate in the institutional event welcoming the 37th America’s Cup of Louis Vuitton.
