Catalan Government: “we must be the most international domestic issue in the wide world”

Barcelona (ACN).- The Catalan Government Spokesperson, Francesc Homs, has ironically stated that the situation in Catalonia “must be the most international of political domestic issues in the wide world”, if the Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is talking about it before the US President, Barack Obama. Homs exclaimed: “every time people say it is an internal issue, and that it would be a mistake to treat it internationally, but Rajoy cannot stop talking about it in his public appearances”. Francesc Homs praised the international community for their silence on the Catalan issue, as they have likely been “pressured” by Spain to voice their disapproval. However, he did not directly refer to Barack Obama, who had avoided commenting on Catalonia’s potential independence at the White House press conference on Monday evening. Homs explained that Catalonia already knew Rajoy’s position on independence, but that the opinion of the Catalan society as a whole remained to be seen. “Voting does not mean being in favour of one option or the other”, he stated. “We want Rajoy, apart from expressing his opinion, to let us vote and know firsthand what the opinion of the people of Catalonia is” he claimed.

The President of the United States had avoided commenting on Catalonia’s potential independence in a joint press conference with Rajoy at the White House on Monday evening. Obama did not offer a straight answer to a journalist’s question about Catalonia’s potential independence. When the reporter asked him whether “secessionist movements, such as Catalonia’s and Scotland’s”, might be “a risk for the European Union’s economic recovery”, Obama offered Rajoy the opportunity to answer first. After Rajoy’s statement, Obama avoided backing the Spanish Government explicitly on this issue, as other international leaders, such as the European Council’s President or the French President, had previously done by saying the situation in Catalonia was “an internal matter”. Instead, the US President chose not to talk about it and emphasised the need to reduce unemployment “throughout the world”.

Rajoy is “pressuring” the international community to be “explicitly” against Catalonia’s self-determination

However, Homs said that in general, everything had some value in international relations, “what is said and what is not said”. In this regard, he explained that the reactions from the international community, “were not what the Spanish Government would like them to be” as they have “pressured them to be very explicitly” against Catalonia’s self-determination vote.  

The Catalan Government is seeking to open a dialogue with the Spanish authorities

In any case, Francesc Homs stated that the Catalan Government paid more attention to the Spanish Government’s statements, which is the institution that has to be convinced to hold the self-determination vote. At this point, the Catalan Government will continue trying to talk to the Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, even though it is believed the latter said he would not discuss the consultation vote and would not have a private meeting with the Catalan President Artur Mas. Homs said this Tuesday that he was not aware of Rajoy’s statement refusing to hold discrete meetings with Mas, but that there had been a letter from the Spanish Prime Minister offering “a permanent dialogue”.