On Tuesday early afternoon, the Catalan President, Artur Mas, gave a
long press conference after the weekly Cabinet Meeting to explain the
next steps he will adopt after Sunday's important symbolic vote on
independence. Mas wanted to convey three main messages: November 9 is a
turning point; he is launching a round of talks about organising
plebiscite elections on independence; and, he urged Rajoy to negotiate
as it can be the last chance before such a plebiscite is called.
Furthermore, he also announced that the Catalan Government was expanding
its appeal to the Constitutional Court with Rajoy's statements from
Saturday, in which the Spanish PM acknowledged that Sunday's
participation process "was not a referendum, nor a consultation, nor
anything similar". However, despite making such a statement, the Spanish
Government appealed against it and the Public Prosecutor's Office is
investigating and might file a complaint against Mas and other members
of the Catalan Executive for November 9's vote.
A democratic mandate is still needed after November 9
Firstly, a democratic mandate to build an independent state is still
needed since November 9's vote, despite being a great success, is not
"the definitive consultation vote". With November 9's massive
participatory process, which represents "a turning point in Catalonia's
history", Catalans "earned" their right to have a binding vote on
independence, Mas said. However, such a democratic mandate will only
come from a mutually-agreed referendum with the Spanish Government or
early elections transformed into a plebiscite on independence. Mas sent a
message to the Catalan political parties: the only reason to hold early
elections would be to decide on independence, as otherwise there is no
need for "ordinary elections". Those early "elections are only the tool
to make the definitive consultation vote", if the Spanish Government
does not agree on negotiating a mutually-agreed referendum. "The tool
cannot be transformed into the objective" since the goal is a
fully-democratic vote on independence and not elections 'per se', he
stated. "If objectives are switched", "there will be great confusion",
he warned.
A round of talks during the next few days to analyse the possibility of calling early elections
Secondly, in line with the previous point, Mas announced a round of
talks in the coming days with "the Catalan parties that ran in the last
[Catalan] elections supporting the right to self-determination" in order
"to listen to everybody" about the steps to be made after November 9.
In case there was any doubt, Mas stressed that he was referring to the
governing centre-right pro-Catalan State two-party coalition CiU, which
groups Christian-Democrat UDC and the Liberal CDC (Mas' party); the
left-wing Catalan independence party ERC; the Catalan green socialist
and post-communist coalition ICV-EUiA; the alternative left and radical
independence party CUP; and, the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC), which is
part of the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE). Those 5 political groups
hold 80% of the Catalan Parliament's seats. Mas will ask those parties
for their proposals after Sunday's massive participatory process and
about their views on calling early elections, to be transformed into a
plebiscite on independence. The Catalan President insisted that this
last option should only be used if parties can guarantee that these
elections will not be ordinary ones and, instead, will become "the
definitive consultation vote" on independence. Mas announced that in
some 10 or 15 days, once he had talked to everybody, he will decide
whether or not to call early elections.
Despite the ERC having shared a parliamentary stability agreement
with the governing CiU for almost the last 2 years, the Catalan
President highlighted that now the Government is in a minority position
in the Catalan Parliament because "it took the risk" to launch the
participatory process that replaced the original consultation vote
scheduled on November 9. However, Mas did not want to criticise the ERC
but neither did he want to privilege it over the other parties in the
round of talks. "We will listen to everybody, including the CiU", he
stressed.
A letter to Rajoy urging him to negotiate a mutually-agreed referendum
Thirdly, Mas confirmed he had sent Rajoy a letter to urge him to
negotiate a mutually-agreed referendum, following "the British or the
Canadian way". The Catalan President highlighted that Catalan
representatives have always preferred this formula, and that they would
be thrilled to sit and talk about it with the Spanish Government.
However, at the same time, Catalonia cannot wait indefinitely for the
Spanish Government to react, particularly after 2 years of a
'no-to-everything' attitude, he said. Mas told Rajoy that November 9 was
"the culmination" of a sustained mobilisation of the Catalan society
for the last 2 years, and that "reality cannot be ignored".
Therefore, "in parallel" to the letter, Mas is holding the round of
talks with Catalan parties to carry on with Catalonia's
self-determination process."After November 9, the process has been
strengthened", he stressed. However, he denied that such talks were a
way to threaten Rajoy, pressurizing him to either negotiate or face
early elections. Mas was particularly insistent that he did not want to
threaten the Spanish PM and that both ways were moving on "in parallel",
because Catalan representatives cannot simply wait for a signal from
Rajoy, particularly when no signal has been sent in the last 2 years. On
the contrary, the Spanish Government "has activated the Public
Prosecution Office after November 9", highlighted Mas. Despite this
scenario, Mas acknowledged that a mutually-agreed referendum "would be
better for everybody" and that, if Rajoy accepts to talk, he will
immediately react and sit with the Spanish PM.
Mas also asked Rajoy "to establish the conditions to set a permanent
dialogue", which has been intermittent in the last few months, the
Catalan President acknowledged. Within such a dialogue, they should talk
about how to organise a self-determination but also about the 23
proposals on specific policies that Mas gave Rajoy in their July
meeting. "These are urgent issues", "affecting public services" and "the
whole society", the Catalan President stressed.
Mas confirmed a massive cyber-attack on Saturday
The Catalan President also confirmed that the Catalan Government's
websites suffered a large-scale attack on Saturday, comparable to the
massive attacks at "world level", he said. Such an attack was not
amateur and could have only be made "by professionals", added Mas. The
Catalan President explained that the cyber-attack not only made the
information websites collapse, but also threatened basic public systems,
such as IT systems for health emergencies and drug prescriptions, which
are entirely managed by the Catalan Government. For almost the entire
normal working hours on Saturday, all chemists' in Catalonia were not
able to process drug prescriptions because of the massive cyber-attack.
Such a hostile action took place the day before the participatory
process and civil society organisations campaign for independence also
suffered wide attacks on that day. The origin of the attack is being
investigated and the Catalan Government will very likely present a
judicial complaint about it in the next few days.
Budget and energy poverty
Furthermore, the Catalan President also confirmed that the Government
will take the budget proposal for the next year to Parliament to be
approved, despite it no longer having support from the ERC. Mas said he
wanted to guarantee that civil servants and public employees will
receive their full salary in 2015, after 3 years of budget cuts to
reduce public deficit. And the best way to do so is by having a budget
bill. He told pro-self-determination parties that not approving a budget
for 2015 will not be understood by voters and that approving it would
give them greater credibility.
In addition, Mas announced they will take to the European Union the
Spanish Government's ban on the Catalan Government's decree to fight the
so-called 'energy poverty'. Catalonia approved a series of measures to
help families in need to avoid suffering power and gas cuts during
winter months, by basically delaying the payment of their energy bills.
However, the Spanish Government surprisingly considered that this was
discriminatory to citizens in the rest of Spain and appealed against it,
going against Catalonia's self-rule powers once again.
