Mas says any decision on the referendum will be by consensus

  • The President of the Catalan government says he plans to hold a vote on independence

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Redacció
14.08.2014 - 15:03

La premsa lliure no la paga el govern, la paguen els lectors


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In a public appearance as part of the activities to commemorate the three-hundredth anniversary of Catalonia’s defeat in the War of the Spanish Succession in 1714, Artur Mas, the President of the Generalitat of Catalonia, the autonomous regional government, assured he will not take any decision on the independence referendum planned for 9 November without the agreement of the rest of political parties in favour of holding a vote on independence from Spain. Mas said that his only plan is to vote, and that the referendum will be held under the legality of the Catalan Referendum Law which the Catalan Parliament is expected to pass in the coming weeks.

This was Mas’s reply to statements this week which have opened the door to the possibility of deferring the 9 November vote if Spain continues to refuse to allow it. The most explicit came from the Vice President of the Catalan government, Joana Ortega, who said that ‘If the [Spanish] state hinders the vote this 9 November, there will be another 9 November to vote’. Ortega’s declarations met with the disapproval of the other political factions which support the referendum, the traditionally staunchly pro-independence ERC, the left leaning-coalition ICV-EUiA and the newly formed radical-left group CUP, who demanded that the Catalan government honour its commitment to hold a vote on 9 November, regardless of the Spanish Constitutional Court’s ruling on the Catalan Referendum Law. Opponents of the independence vote are expected to challenge the legality of the referendum law before that court as soon as it passes.

Regarding this controversy, Mas said: ‘There is always trouble in the month of August. We should take these things with a grain of salt’. Mas also asked that political parties refrain from making electoral calculations and called for a display of “exceptional attitudes” suited to an ‘exceptional moment’ in the nation’s history.

The Catalan chief executive also warned that the factors Catalonia has in its favour should ‘not be overstated or underestimated’. In Mas’s opinion, these are three: the social majority which supports a political process towards independence, the consensus among political forces in this regard, and a peaceful, constructive, positive manner of conducting affairs. According to President Mas, these are the tools Catalan people have which will allow them to move forward successfully.

‘We do not have demographic or economic power, nor the power to tax, and we also lack an army and the ability to conduct international relations that the [Spanish] state has’, therefore everything depends, he said, ‘on our way of going about this, on the effort of this nation’s citizens, who have become the protagonists of this story’.

Courage and Intelligence to Move Forward

In his appearance to mark the three-hundredth anniversary of the Battle of Talamanca, which took place in the waning days of the War of the Spanish Succession, Mas said there were lessons to glean from that chapter of history: On the one hand, that the will of the Catalan people to govern themselves has been present since the early days of the Catalan nation. ‘It would be wise to remember this fact both inside and outside Catalonia’, he said, adding that the desire for independence has lasted until today, a time when the Catalan population is ‘very heterogeneous’. ‘This is a testament to the people’, said Mas, ‘who have maintained their identity, culture, language and way of being and doing’.

On the other hand, the president also warned to ‘not underestimate our opponents’ strength and power, which is great’. ‘We must be brave and also clever (…) if we behave in this fashion we will fare better than we would otherwise’, he said.

The last lesson Mas drew from the battle, the last one in which Catalan troops were victorious against the House of Bourbon, is that “if you fight you may lose or win, but if you do not fight you have already lost”. In order to prevail, he said, ‘We must not take risks unthinkingly, but with intelligence’.

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