Catalonia’s ousted president Carles Puigdemont met Wednesday with the speaker of the region’s parliament in Brussels despite efforts by Spain’s central government to prevent the talks.
Puigdemont had originally been due to meet with Catalan parliament speaker Roger Torrent and four other members of his sacked government at Catalonia’s trade mission in Brussels.
But they were forced to move the meeting to another nearby location after Spain’s central government ordered Catalonia’s representative in Brussels not to allow it to take place at the mission, according to an AFP reporter at the scene.
“The representative of the Catalan government in Brussels has been instructed not to allow this meeting to take place in the building of the Catalan diplomatic mission,” the source told AFP just before the meeting was due.