Why does the Vatican flag wave at the Generalitat and the Barcelona City Council?

BarcelonaSince this Tuesday, the Vatican flag has been flying on the facade of the Palau de la Generalitat and also on that of Barcelona City Hall. The Government has fully committed to the institutional visit that Pope Leo XIV is making to Catalonia – the first stop was this weekend in Madrid and will end the week in the Canary Islands – and the President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, is accompanying the pontiff throughout his stay, from the moment he disembarked the plane on the very same runway. The visual proof that the Government wants to give its all for this visit is that it has also hung the flag on the facade of the Generalitat. Why?

According to the spokesperson for the Government and Minister of Territory, Sílvia Paneque, for the "international projection" of Leo XIV. "It has been considered that for international and global projection, this demand had to be met at the protocol level," assured the spokesperson for the executive, Sílvia Paneque. That is to say, the proposal came from the protocol department of the Generalitat and the Government accepted it. Paneque stressed the "impact and significance" that the Pope has on a global scale, not only as a religious leader but also as a head of state.

On other occasions, however, the Generalitat has not done the same when other international leaders have visited the country. Not going any further, with the visit it received a few weeks ago from the President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who was in Barcelona to participate in the bilateral summit with the Spanish government. At that time, the flag of the South American state did not fly on the facade of the Palau de la Generalitat. And in the most explicit comparison, during the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Catalonia on November 7, 2010, the Government, then led by José Montilla, also did not place the Vatican flag on the facade of the Palau de la Generalitat.

Government sources explain that, although this is the first time it has happened in this legislature, previously flags from other states had also been displayed on the balcony of Plaça de Sant Jaume. In most cases, however, they were not flags but banners. For example, in March 2022, a banner with the colors of the Ukrainian flag and the message "Catalonia with Ukraine. For peace, freedom and human rights" was hung. The colors of the French or Belgian flag have also been projected with light, after they suffered terrorist attacks.

The gesture of the Palau de la Generalitat and also of the Barcelona City Council contrasts with that of the Madrid institutions: at the Madrid City Council, located in Plaza Cibeles, where the Pope officiated a mass on Sunday, no Vatican flag was flying.

How much money is the Government allocating to the visit?

The Generalitat has allocated more than two million euros to the Pope's visit to Catalonia, as confirmed this Tuesday by Paneque at a press conference. This money, he said, largely comes from the collection of the tourist tax and has been largely used to host the 2,000 journalists accredited to cover the pontiff's visit to Catalonia. To this amount must be added what has been invested in promotional campaigns: 270,000 euros for one by the Generalitat and 195,000 euros for another shared between the regional administration and the Barcelona City Council.