25.04.2014 - 10:03
The President of the Generalitat, Artur Mas, defended opening a dialogue in all senses with the Spanish State yesterday, even with respect to the question and the date, but “without prior conditions”. “The State is not offering dialogue, they’re imposing their will,” said Mas, in an interview with Ariadna Oltra which inaugurated her new “.Cat” program on TV3. Mas added, “They only offer dialogue if we give up the right to decide.” The president insisted that the Spanish State must understand that at this point in time, the only way out is for Catalans to take a trip to the ballot boxes in order to decide the political future of their country.
“We set a date and question so that the process wouldn’t get dragged on for eternity. In Madrid they are in no rush at all,” Mas said. The President said that the sovereignty process had to end in a way that was beneficial for everyone. “Catalonia can’t hope to get to the end of the process as the victor in all points, with Spain defeated. Nor can the opposite be true.”
The president also made it clear that no one should expect that things would be resolved quickly after the referendum. “At that point, we’ll have a mandate from the people, but what happens from that point is still unwritten, and we’ll have to sit down and negotiate to find the best solution for everyone,” he explained. And he warned that the Spanish State would still have opportunities to find agreement: “It has missed many opportunities, but it still has some left.” And he challenged the state by saying, “Indeed, Spain has one chance for seducing Catalonia: by letting us vote.”
“I’m aware that in Madrid they identify me with the black beast”
“I wish that in Madrid they didn’t think that it was me who invented this whole thing. It’s not a sick plan of an insane person, it’s the movement of a people,” said Mas. “I am aware that in Madrid they identify me with the black beast,” he added. He warned Catalans that this political process needs “steadfastness and resistance” and that people would have to come out on the streets as much as necessary and at opportune moments, always in an exemplary fashion: peacefully and positively.” “That,” he said, “is Catalonia’s great strength, because Spain is used to dealing with a subjected and vanquished Catalonia, but not with a Catalonia which stands up for itself calmly and democratically. That is something new.”
“An offer? Who would believe it?”
With respect to possible offers from the Spanish State, Mas explained that the Catalan governments have always collaborated with Spanish governments. But he noted that all of the offers and promises have all ended badly, “with little, or with less.” “If at this stage of the game we go back and do it again, what kind of crediblity will that have in Catalonia?”
The president recalled the four years of negotiation over the Statute of Autonomy, the path the statute took through the Parliament, the Spanish Congress, the referendum, the Constitutional Court… And he stressed the disappointing conclusion to the whole process and the frustration it generated. “An offer? Who would believe it?” Mas asked.
Here are some extracts of the interview (in Catalan):
