Puigdemont: 2017 will see the end of "a process" and the start of the "era of a free Catalonia"
The President of the Generalitat stresses his government's "unshakable" commitment to the referendum, warns the Spanish government that it will have to present arguments as to why it is rejecting the vote
Barcelona"2017 will not be a conventional or ordinary year. It will be a year when one process will end, indeed, and a new era will begin: the era of a free Catalonia". This was the message that Carles Puigdemont, President of the Generalitat, addressed to the people who attended the presentation he gave at Barcelona’s Romea Theatre entitled "2017, a crucial year for the future of Catalonia", in which he stressed his administration's unshakable commitment to the referendum: "We will not be lured away by anything”.
This is a commitment, however, that does not imply that they will not fight until the very end to obtain a negotiated agreement for the referendum. Puigdemont assured that he will seek out an agreement "intensely", and that he isn't even contemplating giving up on the idea. "I will not accept the first 'No', nor the second. We won't make it easy for them to even say no", warned the president, who emphasised that the Spanish government “is duty-bound to listen to democracy”.
"A monosyllable is not enough to reject the referendum. They will have to make a better argument as to why Catalans cannot do what other democratic countries have done, are doing, and will continue to do in the future", he added.
Individual declarations of independence
Puigdemont, who said that Catalan independence is already being achieved via many "individual declarations of independence", warned that beyond the government's commitment, this new year "will once again be a time for an explicit commitment by society", which must reiterate to the world that this is not a process instigated by a government or political parties, but rather one that is broad-based".
Puigdemont also spoke in detail about his decision not to attend Spain’s Conference of Regional Presidents, a gesture which he cited as an example of one of those individual declarations of independence. The Catalan president complained that the Conference had not been held for the past four years, and that experience has shown that its agreements are often totally inconsequential.
In addition, he noted that the regional financing model to be discussed should have been updated three years ago. Among his arguments he also listed the fact that since the last meeting of this forum —in October 2012-- independence support in the Catalan parliament has gone from 14 representatives to 72. "We have left Spain’s common regime. The notion that “one size fits all" is over. But there are those who refuse to recognize this and they’ll be held accountable for it."
