Torra, 131st President

Quim Torra was sworn in yesterday as the 131st President of the Generalitat. Pending the King’s placet to sanction the appointment and the official publication in the State and Catalan bulletins, Torra will travel today to Berlin to meet with who he considers to be the “legitimate president.” This initial gesture confirms the provisional nature of the legislature and that Torra expects Puigdemont to return and take up office he was forced to leave in the future.Torra will make his first official press conference as President from Berlin alongside Puigdemont.

The new president was appointed following today’s second round with the votes in favour of his own group, JxCat and ERC and with the abstention from the four CUP MPs. The Speaker of the House, Roger Torrent, made it clear yesterday morning that he would not inform the King in person and after the vote informed the head of state by letter of the appointment.

In his speech prior to the vote, Torra once more spoke of his desire to carry out the republican mandate of October 1 and also that his immediate priority is to see the lifting of the restrictions imposed by Madrid under Article 155 of the Constitution.

In light of CUP’s decision to abstain, Torra asked the four new members of the opposition to be “vigilant” should he fail to live up to his promise of continuing the independence process.

In response to criticism from the opposition groups for tweets and articles written which they considered to be offensive to Spain and to many Catalan citizens, Torra apologised saying: “I regret that and it will not happen again.”