CATALONIA -- Catalan President says he wants to talk with Rajoy "about how to organize the referendum" - VilaWeb
Catalan President says he wants to talk with Rajoy "about how to organize the referendum" - VilaWeb:
Catalan President says he wants to talk with Rajoy "about how to organize the referendum"
"The solution must include Catalans going to the ballot boxes," said the president in an interview with SER radio
The president of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, explained in an interview
on Cadena Ser (radio) that he has not spoken with Mariano Rajoy since
last summer, even though he has always been open to speaking discreetly.
"The climate of dialogue must be extended, not only with Rajoy but also
with opposition leader Rubalcaba, because if not, we cannot move
forward," said Mas, who insisted that he had asked for a meeting with
the Spanish president "but not formally, since that wouldn't be
discreet", in order to come to an agreement about "the way in which the
referendum will be organized", just like they did in Scotland.
In
this sense, Mas said that he will not undercut Catalan aspirations to
vote in a referendum on the future of Catalonia: "The solution must
include Catalans going to the ballot boxes." And he denied that the
Catalan Government intended to press forward on its own: "The only
unilateral decision that has been made so far is by the Spanish
Government, which said that it did not want to negotiate the
referendum."
The president explained the chronology of the sovereignty process:
approval of the Law of Consultations in the Parliament and the
convocation of the referendum on November 9th. If the Spanish government
blocks the Law of Consultations by bringing it before the Spanish
Constitutional Court, he pointed out that there is the option of an
"electoral scenario": plebiscitary elections. He also recalled that if
the Yes-Yes vote on the referendum wins a majority, a negotiation
process will have to be opened with Spain: "Voting on independence does
not mean proclaiming independence twenty-four hours later."
