Mas: “No matter what happens, Catalonia WILL vote.”

“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.