Catalan government open to dialogue until deadline

The Catalan government stands by the offer of dialogue president Carles Puigdemont made to the Spanish executive and “will not take any decision” until Thursday, despite the imprisonment of the heads of the pro-independence civic organisations, ANC and Òmnium. Spanish president Mariano Rajoy has given Puigdemont until Thursday to clarify whether he made a declaration of independence on October 10 in the Catalan Parliament. Puigdemont offered Madrid a two-month period of negotiations, but this has so far been rejected by Rajoy's executive. 

However, that did not stop the leader of the PSC Catalan socialists, Miquel Iceta, from calling on Puigdemont to summon the heads of the parliamentary parties before Thursday. In a letter sent to the president on Tuesday, Iceta pointed out that the cancellation of this week’s plenary session in the Catalan Parliament had prevented party heads from expressing their opinion on how the president should respond to Rajoy’s Thursday deadline. Iceta's party is against independence and was opposed to the October 1 vote. 

In any case, the Catalan government insists it “will not sit by and watch the attacks on Catalan institutions,” warned a spokesman, who added that “for there to be dialogue, both parties must want dialogue.” The spokesman also justified the government’s decision to wait until Thursday as it gives more time to analyze the situation and if necessary adjust positions in order to show, both inside and outside Spain, “that the offer of dialogue is sincere.”

Referendum Law declared unconstitutional

Despite the government’s preference for a negotiated solution to the political crisis, the spokesman nevertheless insisted that the Catalan executive would see through the mandate it was given in the October 1 referendum. On Tuesday, Spain’s Constitutional Court declared the Referendum Law passed on September 6 in the Catalan Parliament to be unconstitutional. "The mandate from the referendum is obviously the mandate we have. And we have to see it through,” said the spokesman.