CATALONIA -- Mas: "No matter what happens, Catalonia WILL vote." - VilaWeb

Mas: "No matter what happens, Catalonia WILL vote." - VilaWeb: Mas:

"No matter what happens, Catalonia WILL vote."

The Catalan President made the comments yesterday in an interview that inaugurated the broadcast of Punt Avui TV

 

"I will call the referendum in such a way that the Spanish Government
will find it very difficult to bring a suit against it or block it.
Don't ask me to explain how, but it will be very difficult for them." In
this way, the president of the Catalan government, Artur Mas, spoke
about holding a referendum on November 9th, in last night's interview
that inaugurated El Punt Avui TV's broadcasting. Mas explained that the
Catalan Parliament would approve a "law of consultations" that would
also be crafted in such a way that it would be very difficult to
overturn and that would serve for holding the "consultation".

Mas
insisted that Catalonia would indeed vote, and that there was little
that the Spanish Government could do to prevent it. He said that a vote
depends on the Catalan people, who must maintain their "capacity for
resistance, broad support, and rigorously peaceful and democratic
spirit". "I'm in favor of doing things seriously, especially in the eyes
of the international community," the president said.

"We don't know exactly how or when, but I am convinced that we will
make it out of this," said the president. "No matter what happens,
Catalonia will vote." And he explained that the requests for dialogue
from the Spanish Government are little more than a trap: "In my opinion,
all these possibilities that circulate about offers from Spanish Gov
are just distractions, meant to waste time. They tell us they want to
talk but that we must renounce everything we want from the start: that
is an imposition. And if the problem is the question or the date, we
should sit down and negotiate those points like the English and Scottish
have done."

He said that it was not likely that the Spanish State would suspend
Catalonia's government. "I'm sure it's occurred to them, but they'll
have evaluated the risks that that would entail, which for them would be
very high. This is uncharted territory that we'll have to construct as
we go along."

Xevi Xirgo, the presenter from El Punt Avui TV, asked the president
at the end of the interview what book he would recommend for Wednesday's
Sant Jordi Festival. The President replied with Santiago Albertí's
L'Onze de Setembre (about Catalonia's National Day) and a collection of
poems by Joan Vinyoli, whose centennial is being celebrated this year.

 

President Artur Mas on El Punt Avui TV