Xavier Antich, president of Òmnium, the person in charge of presenting the award, said that with the award 'we not only celebrate literature, but also the strength of culture as a collective driving force and the beauty of the language as a meeting place'.
He added that rewarding and making visible literature in Catalan is not only the celebration of an art, but also a commitment to a more critical, more creative and more cohesive society, in his exact words: “When we read in Catalan, we not only share stories: we share a common space, a symbolic territory that defines us and drives us.”
Manuel Baixauli explained that he wrote his acceptance speech "seven days ago, with his anxiety under control, not knowing if it would be given in public or if it would be a phantom speech that would end up in the cemetery of forgotten speeches" and encouraged those present to read the finalist novels: Mammalia, by Elisenda Solsona, and La conformista, by Alba Dedeu.
