State President Salvador Illa proposed on Wednesday in his speech to the Mexican Senate the creation of a summit for the European and American regions, similar to the eurozone in the Pyrenees and the Mediterranean. The Prime Minister sees in this multilateral cooperation the way to respond to current global challenges, a model that he also opposed with the model of those who “build walls,” in a veiled reference to the President of the United States, Donald Trump. Illa strongly advocated federalism as the best way to respond to citizens.
During his speech at the opening of the forum on the role of regional governments in productive development, Ella stressed that “this will allow the exchange of policies, projects and knowledge to respond to global challenges and enhance the role of regions as actors and interlocutors before international organizations.” Among the attendees were representatives of the executives of Quebec, the Basque Country and some Mexican states, such as Nuevo León or Mexico City itself.
Illa, who is on an official visit to Mexico until Thursday, seeks to further strengthen relations between the regions on both sides of the Atlantic. The mandate proposal, which will start with a summit in Barcelona, seeks to emulate successful cooperation experiences such as the Four Powers of Europe, which brings together the regions of Catalonia, Baden-Württemberg, Lyon and Milan, or the Eurozone experience in the Pyrenees and the Mediterranean, which brings together the governments of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and the French region of Occitania.
“Do we want a world divided by walls or a world in which borders are lines of cooperation? Let me be particularly clear on this question: some governments build walls on borders to create a false sense of security. But on any border in the world, walls impoverish and isolate those who build them. Therefore, I believe it is the regions’ duty to lead the way in answering these questions,” Ella emphasized.
The Catalan president has directly advocated a multilateral response to global problems, in contrast to what he wants to offer those who seek “a world governed by unilateral decisions.” “Where some see insurmountable borders, we see spaces for convergence and exchange with ambitious and effective transnational policies,” he explained. “Because we promote our cultural diversity as wealth, not as division.”
By using the fifth day of his official visit to Mexico, where he also opened the Catalonia Pavilion at the Guadalajara Book Fair, Illa demonstrated his affinity with the Latin American country as a way to channel aid between the regions. “We are pleased to sign a cooperation agreement with the University of Guadalajara to share progress and knowledge (at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center),” president. He defended this by saying: “We do not want a zero-sum world, where the majority lose and the few win. We want a world of virtuous circles in which we all win.”
He added that in this model of cooperation, institutional loyalty is vital and the ILA party has taken advantage of this idea to offer a closed defense of the federalism that governs the “United Mexican States.” He added: “I wanted to remember the official name of your country to highlight an aspect that we perhaps do not always take into account in Catalonia and Spain: the formation of Mexico as a federal state in which its 32 member states, on the basis of their autonomy and loyalty, are united and committed to a federal pact in the interest of progress and coexistence.” “Multi-level governance is useful when the public interest is prioritized,” he stressed.
As on the rest of the trip, Ella always offered words of gratitude for the Mexican welcome to the Republican exiles. On this occasion, he pointed to the role of the Mexican authorities in the institutional continuity of the state. “It was August 5, 1954, at the Embassy of the Spanish Republic in Mexico City, when Josep Tradias was elected. president of public jurisdiction, thus ensuring the continuity of Catalan institutions until democracy is restored. A crucial fact that Catalan society will never forget. And for all this, Gràcies de tot cor en nom de Catalunya.”