CATALONIA --- "Once independence is declared, the harbors and airports will have to be under control" - VilaWeb

"Once independence is declared, the harbors and airports will have to be under control" - VilaWeb

"Once independence is declared, the harbors and airports will have to be under control"

Interview with Ignasi Termes, member of the Secretariat of the Catalan National Assembly

The Catalan National Assembly has chosen April 23, 2015 for
Catalonia's Declaration of Independence, whether a referendum has been
held or not. The 2014-2015 road map, developed by a commission that was
nominated by the Secretariat of the group will have to be approved in
the General Assembly on April 5 in Tarragona. One of the members of the
Secretariat, Ignasi Termes, talks to VilaWeb about civil disobedience,
the effect the declaration of independence will have, and responds to
the threats of the newspaper ABC, which recently demanded in an
editorial that the state arrest the leaders of the ANC.

Why April 23, 2015? 

April 23 is a symbolic day—[The Day of Sant Jordi, or Saint George,
who is Catalonia's patron saint; one of the country’s most popular
holidays is celebrated by giving books and roses to loved ones]—but it's
more a general target, a calendar, not an exact date. In this case,
they're not proposing a road map with one sole route, but rather they
have made a plan that aims to analyze various scenarios. We put what we
think is the best case, that is, the objective that the referendum can
be held completely normally. The big news is this, that the road maps
have one direction and that that direction changes depending on the
events that don't depend on us, that we can't control but that we have
to keep in mind.

But this target date of Sant Jordi Day next year is
maintained whether or not the referendum can be held. It's a way of
setting a deadline even for the plebescite vote.
Yes, that's
the idea. No matter what the scenario, the process cannot drag on
indefinitely. The alternative actions in other scenarios have to stick
to the calendar.

Scotland has set two years between its referendum and its
declaration of independence. Why in our case have you only allowed for a
little less than one year?
Here there isn't the same will
as the British Government has in order to establish a period of
negotiation, which, if it existed, would allow for a more relaxed
schedule. In this case, we know that the Spanish Government is not open
to negotiation and that in any case, we have to take the initiative and
be able to negotiate on an equal footing after having already declared
independence. It's clear that before that happens, negotiation is
impossible.

[PP leader] Sánchez-Camacho has accused you of wanting to block and control harbors and airports.
That
is twisting the truth. In the ANC we don't have any intention of
controlling those infastructures ourselves. It is the country that will
have to take control. Those are indispensable structures for keeping the
country functioning, that cannot be allowed to stop working. We believe
that the Catalan institutions must take charge from day one so that
they keep functioning without any trouble. These infrastructures that
currently depend on the Spanish state will have to be controlled. In a
situation with a declaration of independence, they are the first
infrastructures that will have to be quickly controlled so that they
don't stop working.

When you speak of acts of sovereignty, you mean it will be necessary to commit acts of disobedience.
When
we speak of acts of sovereignty, we mean that we need to begin to think
like a state and to act like one, that we need to undertake actions
from this point of view, that there is a legitimacy that overrules
Spanish legislation, that completely disregards the existence of a
Catalan state. And it will have to be overruled with this declaration,
that will turn the Catalan people in a new direction.

The Madrid daily, ABC, wrote in a recent editorial that the State should dissolve the ANC and that it should arrest all of you.
That
goes along with the Spanish state's position, which instead of trying
to understand the Catalan situation, threatens and destroys any kind of
bridges, in this case with direct threats to a group that hasn't done
absolutely anything illegal and I'd like to see how they would take such
an action. It's a threat that coincides with the hubris that the
Spanish State has exhibited throughout this process, because I think
that they have the state power, but they have not paid attention at any
moment to the fact that this process has the strength of the civil
society behind it which is going in this direction. Threats of any sort
are completely out of place.

Are you afraid that it might happen?
We should
anticipate that it is a possibility, yes. We don't understand how they
could do such a thing, because there is no legal argument that they
could use for such an action. But at the very least, we should be
prepared.

What will the ANC do this September 11th? [The Diada, Catalonia's National Day]
We
will decide on April 5. For months, the ANC has fielded suggestions and
ideas from all over about what we could do this year. All of the
actions that we carry out are not the idea of one person with an
inspiration, but rather the sum of a variety of ideas. Since there was a
lot of interest in thinking about what we could do to outdo last year's
Catalan Way, we have received many, many proposals—more than 200—of all
kinds. Now we will share them with the whole Secretariat and we will
look at the advantages of each of these ideas.

You say that this Diada (September 11) will be remembered as the one that made the referendum possible.
This
year we have a very important day, which is November 9th, but we won't
get there if we're not prepared, and thus, this September 11th is very
important.

 

Ignasi Termes