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Ciutadans' leader in Madrid, Albert Rivera, has returned to Catalan public broadcaster TV3 to talk bluntly about the channel itself: "you lie, you're a device of pro-independence propaganda". The presenter of the channel's Els Matins morning magazine show, Lídia Heredia, showed clear surprise at his comments. The unionist leader added that "TV3 insults the leaders of the opposition, it brands us as being far-right".

Rivera continued with his strong criticism of the channel, calling on them to "be for everyone again", at the same time as claiming that it has insulted Inés Arrimadas, his party's leader in Catalonia, for being of Andalusian origin.

"The only solution in Spain is to go to the ballot box"

Albert Rivera is not happy with Pedro Sánchez's leadership since winning the motion of no-confidence in predecessor Mariano Rajoy: "The motion was a surprise; the Spanish people were expecting Sánchez would call an election as he had said several times". According to Rivera,  "Sánchez is clinging to his seat as he looks at negotiating with Podemos and the pro-independence parties".

Although Ciutadans's leader believes that "there were reasons to question the previous government, now an election is needed". Rivera took the opportunity to remind the new prime minister that he doesn't have a majority in the Congress, and that "nor does he have enough with the support of Podemos".

"We don't want to remove Franco by decree; we want to do it by law"

Rivera's party agrees that the remains of dictator Francisco Franco should be removed from the Valle de los Caídos. That is, under certain conditions: he should be exhumed following a law, not by executive order, with the aim of "being able to make amendments".

The party's idea is that the Valle should become a national cemetery, a "point of reunification and consensus". "Franco's departure from the Valle has a parliamentary majority, but historical memory has to be used," he concluded.

The Mossos d'Esquadra

Within a month, the Mossos d'Esquadra, the Catalan police, will join CITCO (Intelligence Centre for Counter-Terrorism and Organised Crime). That's one of the agreements reached by the Spain-Catalonia security board this Thursday, a decision applauded by Rivera: "The Mossos have to join and have all co-ordination and communication with the other police forces".

Now, he doesn't just have positive words for the Mossos: he called them a political police force and criticised them for "identifying people for doing things which aren't illegal", referring to the groups who go around at night removing yellow symbols from public spaces.

 

Article 155

After president Quim Torra's speech this week to start the political year after the summer break, when he asked Sánchez to suspend Catalan self-rule again, today he tried to soften his statement, saying that "Sánchez should require Torra to obey the Constitution and say he'll do it". He went on to suggest that the reason Sánchez hasn't done this is that he "depends on the ERC and JxCat seats".