CATALONIA --- Generalitat Spokesperson clarifies: Spain's vote wouldn't invalidate Catalan decision - VilaWeb

Generalitat Spokesperson clarifies: Spain's vote wouldn't invalidate Catalan decision - VilaWeb

The Executive Councilor for the Catalan Government, Frances Homs,
tried to calm down representatives of ERC and the CUP for his
declarations yesterday to Cope radio, in which he said he anticipated
that the whole of the citizens of the Spanish State might vote on
Catalonia's political future. In declarations to Catalunya Ràdio today,
Homs explained that in the event that Catalans vote in favor of
independence but the Spanish end up voting against in a [second]
referendum, 'that would not invalidate [the Catalan vote], because the
people of Catalonia are a sovereign body and thus can decide their own
future'.

Homs, who also spoke with private radio station RAC-1,
insisted that after the referendum, if the Spanish Government is
amenable, there will be a negotiation. 'And if the process ends up
leading to a reform of the [Spanish] Constitution, we know how that is
done, with the vote of the whole of the Spanish citizenry'. But Homs
wanted to make it very clear: 'It's not about giving the capacity of
decision of the Catalan people in the hands of others. If the people of
Catalonia vote for independence, conditions—but not the decision—can be
negotiated.'

Response from ERC and CUP
Via Twitter, Alfred Bosch, Catalan
Republican Left (ERC) spokesperson to the Spanish Congress showed his
surprise at the 'other-determination' defended by the Executive
Councilor in his declarations to Cope radio. 'That others decide for
you? And what universal right inspired him to say that?' Bosch tweeted.
As for the CUP, MP Quim Arrufat made it clear that he was worried and he
reminded the councilor that the negotiation must take place once
independence is recognized and not before.

ERC and the CUP remarked that the right to decide implies that
Catalans exercise their sovereignty, and therefore, the sovereign
decision of the Catalan people should not need the approval of the rest
of the Spanish citizenry.

In a public release, Arrufat added that the reform of the Spanish
Constitution forms part of 'the pile of paperwork that the Spanish State
should go through for itself once we've won our independence'.
According to him, 'it's not, in any case, a stop on our path toward the
referendum, nor toward independence'.