400 figures from different countries from the worlds of academia and culture have signed a manifesto in favour of negotiations to "explore and agree on some initiatives that help to find a political solution" to the conflict in Catalonia. As well as supporting dialogue, they say the political situation has "has deteriorated in a worrying way".

The signatories call for "all parties" involved to "make an effort to de-escalate [the] social tension", saying they "profoundly deplore" the "violent actions" seen. Similarly, they ask "for the strategy of judicializing an inherently political conflict to be avoided".

Besides Catalonia and Spain themselves, there are signatories from the UK, Ireland, USA, Canada, Australia, Sweden, Italy, France, Portugal, Chile, Argentina, and Belgium among other countries. They include figures like the philosophers Noam Chomsky, Gianni Vattimo, Philip Pettit and Slavoj Žižek; sociologists like Anthony Giddens and Boaventura de Sousa Santos; epidemiologists like Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson; as well as the psychologist and linguist Steven Pinker, the political scientist Jane Mansbridge and Alfred-Maurice de Zayas, the UN Independent Expert on the Promotion of a Democratic and Equitable International Order 2012-2018.

The local signatories include the rector of Pompeu Fabra University, Jaume Casals; former Catalan minister Andreu Mas-Colell, the philosopher Josep Ramoneda, the sociologist Ignacio Sánchez-Cuenca, the legal scholar Javier Pérez Royo and Manuela Carmena, mayor of Madrid 2015-2019.

Avui (gent de l'acadèmia i la cultura) publiquem una Petició Pública a favor d'una Negociació Política sobre Catalunya. Es va redactar fa uns dies. Però pensem que, ara, més que mai és hora d'emprendre negociacions. Uneix-te a nosaltres!https://t.co/gy9FSC6soi — Public Petition on Catalonia (@PetitionOn) November 13, 2019