Catalan president says 'what's happening in Gaza is a genocide, denying it is mistaking reality'

The Catalan president, Salvador Illa, said that "what is happening in Gaza is a genocide," and he criticized that right-wing parties "continue to deny it" and it is completely "to go against reality."

Illa said, "63,000 deaths, 150,000 injured, and 250,000 facing starvation conditions, most of them children, and almost two million displaced, this is a genocide." The Catalan president said that "things must be named by their name," during a speech at an event organized by the Spanish news agency Europa Press.

The president spoke after Sunday's riots in favor of Palestine in Madrid, which forced the halt of the last stage of Spain's La Vuelta cycling race.

He was "surprised" that the right-wing parties "continue" to refuse the situation, and urged them to "stop denying reality."

Illa also defended the nine measures announced by Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez last week to support Gaza and said that "the world is becoming hugely dehumanized, and a country without any values does not have any future."

Junts: 'double standards'

The Catalan pro-independence party, Junts, has criticized the "double standards" of those who encourage La Vuelta protests but during the 2017 independence referendum "backed the police brutality against all those people who peacefully and freely attended the ballots," Junts per Catalunya spokesperson Mònica Sales said.

Speaking from Waterloo, in Belgium, where the party is meeting with its leader, former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, Sales said that it is important to "strongly" defend the right to demonstrate, but "this right cannot be personalized, it has to be for everyone and across all territories."

Expel Israel from international competitions

Meanwhile, the Spanish PM, Pedro Sánchez, defended expelling Israel from all international competitions, following Sunday's riots in Madrid due to the Israeli team competing in La Vuelta.

"Until the barbarity does not end, neither Russia nor Israel could be part of any international competition," he said before urging organizers to question "if it is ethical for Israel to continue to take part in international competitions." He wonders why "Russia expelled after the Ukraine invasion, but Israel is not expelled after invading Gaza?"

Sánchez spoke about sporting events, but Ernest Urtasun, the Spanish culture minister, had also proposed expelling Israel from the Eurovision Song Contest.

People's Party blames Sánchez

The Spanish president of the conservative, People's Party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo blamed Pedro Sánchez for supporting and empowering the riots seen during the last stage of La Vuelta, as he is "surrounded by corruption cases."

Feijóo said, "It seems like the Spanish PM does not have limits and does not care about police, the cyclists' integrity, and the problems that attendees can face."

He claims that "while the protests are legitimate," these cannot be mixed with "calls to boycott La Vuelta, which endanger people's lives."