Congress deputy Laura Borràs (JxCat) didn't go to the Zarzuela Palace for a "courtesy visit". That's what she said after meeting Felipe VI this Thursday, wearing a yellow butterfly pin and yellow bracelet in support of the Catalan political prisoners. "I looked him in the eyes to tell him what he hadn't heard from the lips of a Catalan woman", said JxCat's Congress spokesperson, who gave the king a letter from Jordi Sànchez and a copy of the report from the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions.
The meeting, which was "polite" according to Borràs, lasted around an hour. When she gave him a copy of the working group's report, Felipe VI said he was already aware of it and they commented on it "superficially". On the subject of Sànchez's letter, he didn't say whether he would reply to it. In any case, the spokesperson explained it was a "personal and private" message which they don't plan to make public.
"I've been to speak with the king of the 'go get them', and I did it for 'them', the political prisoners", Borràs said after again denouncing the Supreme Court's decision to not allow Sànchez to attend the meeting. That topic, the political prisoners, was one of the main ones in today's meeting, with the spokesperson passing on the her "pain" and that of the prisoners' families. "I didn't enter into debating the description of them as 'political prisoners', but it's clear that he doesn't agree with it," she said.
"During the conversation I explained that I was visiting him as a 1st October [2017 referendum] voter, someone who had entered politics after the 1st October", said Borràs, who denounced the repression that day and the king's speech two days later directly to him. At that point, according to the JxCat deputy, she told him that "we Catalans have no king", but that she had gone to the palace after his role in the conflict, a role which wasn't particularly "discreet". She urged him to move to a role as an arbiter and moderator in the conflict.
Borràs also warned the king that "a reality cannot be punished" with imprisonment, exile or suspending self-government, they must instead try to understand it and confront a "political conflict" politically.
This was also the line she took when it came to the subject of investing a new government. She said her party will only give its votes to a candidate for prime minister "who is prepared to solve the political conflict politically". She expressed regret for the fact that Pedro Sánchez hasn't got in touch with them: "it's a gesture of minimal consideration".
Finally, she passed on a message from Carles Puigdemont from Waterloo: "Tell him that I liked him more as prince of Girona than as king".