Catalonia’s regional government will submit a proposal to Spain’s executive in 2024 for a legal referendum on the region’s independence, Catalan President Pere Aragonès said on Tuesday.
The leader of the regional government and member of the independence party Esquerda Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) has pointed out that, in recent years, the efforts of the executive he presides over have focused on issues such as the pandemic, the response to inflation or drought, but none of these issues “should make us forget the political conflict that is yet to be resolved.”
In this context, the regional government (known as the Generalitat) will begin this month a process to define the rules and conditions for holding a referendum on the independence of Catalonia, which will then be taken to the Spanish government, he added.
The objective of Aragonès and ERC is that the new referendum is held with the agreement of the Spanish authorities and with international recognition, unlike what happened in 2017.
Thus, in 2024, ERC wants to negotiate with the Government of Spain the rules and conditions for holding a referendum on the region’s independence, similar to the one achieved by the Quebec regional executive in Canada in 2000.
The proposal that Catalonia will present to the Government of Spain in 2024 will be built over the next few months and involves the formation of a commission of academics, experts in law and political science, of different sensibilities, including names contrary to the independence of the region, said Pere Aragonès, at a press conference in Barcelona.
This commission will be in charge of preparing various reports and works in this process, until reaching the final proposal that will be taken to the Government of Madrid.
These works will include a compilation of opinions and conclusions from three participatory processes, with all the political parties, except the extreme right of Vox, with several Catalan entities and with a sample of 800 people, representative of the territory’s society, who will follow scientific methods. in the selection.
“The conflict with the state has been blocked for too long and we can only move forward if we identify new proposals,” Aragonès told reporters.
At the last ERC congress, in January, the party approved its own referendum proposal negotiated with the Spanish State, which foresees the victory of the “yes” to independence in the event of a minimum participation of 50% of the voters and a support of at least 55% of the votes.
“My wish is that the final proposal is the proposal that Catalonia puts on the negotiation table with the State Government. Not only my proposal or that of the ‘Government’ [regional]but from the country [a Catalunha]”, guaranteed this Tuesday Pere Aragonès.
The leader of the regional government also said that he would take the proposal to Madrid even if the Socialists lose the national elections scheduled for December and the right wing goes on to govern Spain.
The current president of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, came to power in 2018 and since then has defended the de-judicialization of the Catalan question and the path of dialogue with the independentistas.
In addition to having created a “dialogue table” where the national government and the regional executive sit, Sánchez pardoned, in 2019, the nine pro-independence supporters arrested and sentenced to prison after the illegal referendum and the unilateral proclamation of the independence of Catalonia in 2017.
At the end of last year, the Spanish Parliament approved the initiative of the Socialists that put an end to the crime of sedition, for which these nine independentistas were convicted and of which the former president of the Catalan executive Carles Puigdemont, not yet tried, was accused of having fled to Belgium.
Without an absolute majority of support in the national parliament, Sánchez has relied on the Catalan separatists (and also the Basques, in addition to other minor formations) to approve laws such as the General State Budget.
Carles Puigdemont’s party, Together for Catalonia (JxCat), and other regional political forces have spoken out against a referendum negotiated with Spain and continue to defend the unilateral path to achieve independence.
ERC, for its part, considers that the unilateral path, in the face of the authorities of the Spanish State and without the recognition of the international community, has failed and defends the negotiated path, based on a referendum.
Aragonès has sparred with polls showing that around 77% of Catalans support holding a referendum, including voters who are against the region’s independence.
According to the same studies, supporters of the independence of Catalonia are less than 50%.
Source: TSF
