CATALONIA -- Catalan News Agency - Catalan President insists citizens will vote after Rajoy asks him to give up referendum plans to start talking

Catalan News Agency - Catalan President insists citizens will vote after Rajoy asks him to give up referendum plans to start talking

Catalan President insists citizens will vote after Rajoy asks him to give up referendum plans to start talking

CNA

Barcelona (ACN).- The President of the Catalan
Government, Artur Mas, has insisted that he will call for the
consultation vote on Catalonia's independence from Spain, despite the
Spanish Government's obstructive attitude. Mas made this statement on
Tuesday evening, in a TV interview. He was answering the Spanish Prime
Minister Mariano Rajoy, who asked him on Tuesday afternoon to give up on
his referendum plans in order to start talking. For the Catalan
President, this is not an offer to talk but "an imposition". According
to Mas, Rajoy offers to talk but not about the issues a majority of
Catalan citizens want to talk about. In front of the Senate plenary,
Rajoy asked Catalan politicians to use "imagination" to solve the
current situation, after the Constitutional Court and the Spanish
Parliament rejected Catalonia's right to self-determination and the
consequent referendum. However, Mas insisted that the reason for not
allowing Catalans to vote is not legal, since several legal ways have
been identified to organise such a vote, but a lack of political will
from the Spanish authorities. In addition, in a public speech on Tuesday
evening, the Catalan President sent a clear message to the European
Union: "the dynamics of states cannot drown the dynamics of peoples" in
an EU based on democratic principles, which goes beyond a mere Union of
state governments and is focused on its citizens. Mas emphasised that
the democratic will of the Catalan people has to be taken into account
by the EU. Furthermore he praised Catalonia for being an example of
"integrating people with very diverse origins […] without falling into
populist and xenophobic movements", which "have been emerging in Europe
lately". In fact, around 70% of Catalans have origins from outside
Catalonia, but more than 75% of the total population wants to hold a
self-determination referendum and more than 50% would vote for
independence, according to many opinion polls.

"The dynamics of states cannot drown the dynamics of peoples" stated
the Catalan President, which was a clear message to the European Union
institutions, which are repeating that this is Spain's internal matter
but send the message - not backed by an argumentation - that a seceded region would be out of the EU.
Artur Mas insisted that Catalonia is "a country that exists", which has
"a mobilised society" with "very diverse origins" which "desires
recognition and particularly to get recognition for this message as a
democratic power". "Maybe people talk too much about states, which are
in sum administrative structures, and do not talk enough about the
strength and dynamics of peoples", said the Catalan President.

Catalonia, an example of integration and conviviality

Mas added that Catalonia is an example of this idea, with an active
civil society, with grass-roots movements and with peaceful and festive
demonstrations to decide on the country's political future. Because
Catalonia "is a country", which has survived throughout history thanks
to the power of its people, of its civil society and its associations,
he said. "We did not accumulate political power, nor military strength,
nor a great demographic weight", "but if we can say today that we have
our country it is because we have a very solid cultural base, thanks to
our network of associations" and "a mobilised civil society".

In fact, the history of Catalonia is the history of surviving
numerous episodes of political and cultural repression. But it is also a
history of integration and conviviality, since 70% of Catalans have
origins from outside Catalonia. Mas praised the fact that Catalonia has
managed throughout its history "to integrate people with very diverse
origins […] without falling into populist and xenophobic movements",
which "have been emerging in Europe lately". "Catalans have integrated
very diverse people into a common project", based on "conviviality" and
"with a civic-minded attitude".

In fact, the celebration of Sant Jordi Day, in which Catalans offer each other roses and books as a sign of love,
is "the best way of showing this way of doing things", he stated, of
proving "this civic-minded way of doing things". In another speech given
on Wednesday morning, Mas defined Sant Jordi Day as a celebration of
love, but also "of culture and conviviality".

Rajoy asks the Catalan President to abandon self-determination plans

On Tuesday afternoon in front of the Senate plenary, the day before
Sant Jordi, the Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, asked the Catalan
President to give up his plans and demands to organise a
self-determination vote as the main condition for starting talks. Rajoy
totally rejects talking about Catalonia's self-determination demands,
since they "go against national sovereignty" and against the decision
reached by the Constitutional Court and the Spanish Parliament
– where Rajoy's People's Party holds an absolute majority. Rajoy's
argument is that he cannot allow a self-determination vote since the law
does not authorise it, according to his interpretation of the legal
framework.

On top of this, he cannot even discuss how to change the legal
framework to make this vote possible. However, according to many
Constitutional experts, there are up to 5 different legal ways to
organise a self-determination vote in Catalonia if there was the
political will to do so. As Catalan politicians have repeated on many
occasions, the Spanish Government is using its own interpretation of the
legal framework as an excuse firstly not to authorise the vote and
secondly to reject any possible negotiation on this issue. For instance,
they have interpreted the recent decision of the Constitutional Court
as a total ban to self-determination, without taking into account that the Court was urging political powers to talk and work on a political solution.

Rajoy insisted that he wants "to talk", but he added that it is "very
difficult" to do so with "someone who unilaterally decides to call an
illegal referendum" without communicating it to the Spanish Government
and the Spanish Parliament. He was referring to the agreement reached in
December 2013 by a majority of Catalan parties on the exact question
wording and date. Catalan
representatives, including the Catalan President, have repeated on many
occasions that they are willing to re-negotiate with the Spanish
Government the legal way to organise the consultation vote, as well
as the exact question and date. However, they will not wait forever for
the Spanish Government to abandon its obstructive attitude, having
already waited for a long while with no result.

In the face of this situation, Rajoy makes abandoning the demands for
a self-determination vote the first condition for negotiations.
However, for those supporting self-determination, this means talking
about something else than their demands and therefore, in practical
terms, it means not talking about the main issue, which is
self-determination. According to many polls, between 75% and 80% of
Catalans want to hold such a vote. In addition, more than 50% of
Catalans would vote for independence. Many have been insisting that this
is in fact the main reason why the Spanish Government does not even
want to talk about holding such a vote, because they are assuming a
scenario where there is a high probability of losing the vote and
therefore they are imposing the current status quo.

Rajoy asks Catalans to use "imagination" to identify the way out of the current situation

On Tuesday, Rajoy went a step further in his lack of proposals regarding the self-determination demands from Catalonia. After rejecting the Constitutional Reform proposed by the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE),
which would aim to find a better accommodation for Catalonia but ,
Rajoy directly asked the Catalan politicians to use "imagination" to
look for a way out of the current situation. "It's up to you to say what
you want", said Rajoy, although he does not accept "right to
self-determination" and "independence referendum" as answers.

The 'number 2' of the governing Centre-Right pro-Catalan State
Coalition (CiU), Josep Antoni Duran i Lleida, replied directly to Rajoy
on Wednesday. Duran i Lleida stated that the problem is not the lack of
imagination but Rajoy's "lack of courage and lack of state sense to talk
and reach an agreed solution". "The problem is not that we lack
imagination, the problem is that we lack an interlocutor", he added.
 "Europe has to know that Spain has a Prime Minister who does not want
[…] to talk with the Catalan President to solve a problem that is known
in Catalonia and in many parts of the world", Duran concluded.

Catalans will vote, guarantees Mas

In a TV interview on Tuesday evening, before Sant Jordi Day, Mas
talked more specifically about the self-determination vote, whose question wording and exact date were agreed among a large group of Catalan political parties last December.
In this sense he guaranteed that he "will call the self-determination
vote" and will organise it in such a way that it will be "very
difficult" for the Spanish Government to block it. Mas insisted that
after the negative answer from the Spanish Parliament and Government to
the petition to transfer to the Catalan Executive the powers to organise
a self-determination referendum, the Catalan Parliament will now
approve its own law to organise a consultation vote, for which there is
already provision in the Catalan Statute of Autonomy from 2006. With the
new law, the Catalan President will have the legal framework to
organise the vote. Mas stated that he will personally make sure that it
is very difficult for the Spanish Government to block the new law
through the Constitutional Court. However, if the Spanish Government
finally blocks the vote, it will be exclusively for political reasons,
not for legal ones, he underlined. This "lack of political will" has to
be crystal clear "in Spain, in Catalonia, in Europe and in the rest of
the world". However, in one way or another, Catalans will vote on their
collective future, he insisted.

More on

Artur Mas, Catalan Elections, Catalan Government, Catalan Independence, Catalan Parliament, CiU, Constitutional Amendment, Constitutional Reform, Democracy, Elections, European Commission, European Parliament, European Union, Independence, Josep Antoni Duran i Lleida, Mariano Rajoy, PP, Referendum, Sant Jordi, Self-Determination, Spanish Constitution, Spanish Constitutional Court, Spanish Government, Spanish Nationalism, Spanish Parliament, Vote

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Artur Mas addressing the press on Sant Jordi Day (by P. Mateos)

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