The Catalan government's representative in France, Martí Anglada, has shared an image of French ex-president François Hollande holding up a yellow ribbon for the camera.
"Your full attention to this photo", exclaimed Anglada on his Twitter account. In the image Hollande can be seen standing in front of a Catalan senyera flag, and holding in his hand a yellow ribbon - the symbol used in Catalonia to indicate solidarity with the situation of the Catalan political prisoners.
Maximum attention in|on this photo of the French ex-president François Hollande! pic.twitter.com/kLTpH6KnMZ
— Martí Anglada (@AngladaMarti) 3 of June 2018
Hollande's gesture could have taken place at the presentation of his new book Les leçons du pouvoir [The lessons of power] in Perpignan. At this same event, the former French president called for a solution to the Catalan conflict "by democratic means". Hollande defended that such a solution had to occur through "respect for the law, respect for territorial integrity and respect for diversity, through the law which has to apply to everybody, but also through the recognition of this singularity”.
The attitude of the former French head of state contrasts with that of his ex-minister, Manuel Valls. Unlike Hollande, Valls has taken part in several demonstrations called by the unionist group Catalan Civil Society and has been suggested as a possible candidate to the mayoralty of Barcelona for the right-of-centre party Ciudadanos.