Catalan President accepts to meet with Rajoy this July in public, but would prefer a discrete meeting

Barcelona (ACN).- The Catalan Minister for the Presidency and Government Spokesperson Francesc Homs, said on Tuesday that the President of the Generalitat, Artur Mas, is willing to accept the meeting formula proposed by the Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy. Spain's PM rejected a discrete meeting and insisted it should be public, despite the fact the Catalan President had requested a private interview. Nonetheless, Homs said it would be better, and "overwhelming common sense", to hold the meeting in private, without the media focus on it, because that would allow it to be  "more productive." "But if it cannot be this way, we will do as they want," Homs said at a press conference, and insisted that the interview format will pose “no problems.” Over the past few weeks, both Rajoy and Mas have been insisting they were willing to talk to each other in order to discuss Catalonia's political situation but neither one of them took the formal steps to arrange a meeting until Mas officially requested one last week.

At a press conference, Homs was careful not to stirr any controversy surrounding the date or the format of the meeting between Artur Mas and Mariano Rajoy. “For us there is no problem,” he said when asked about the will of Moncloa (the official residence of the Spanish President) to hold the meeting in public this month. The Catalan Minister pointed out that there are some limitations to fix the day for such a meeting, such as weekly Cabinet meetings or Parliament plenary sessions. However, he added that "apart from that, we are available every day and there will be no problem the way it is."

However, Homs did concede that the Catalan Government would have preferred the meeting to be discrete. He insisted that a private meeting would be better "and overwhelming common sense" as it could be "more productive". "But if it be so, we will do as they want," he stressed.

Regarding the statements of the President of the Catalan Government saying he is open to change the wording of the self-determination vote, Homs indicated that these words were nothing new. Homs reminded that the Catalan President has always said that he would like an agreement with the Spanish authorities about the self-determination vote, which should take place on the 9^th November 2014, the date on which the Catalan government has secheduled a vote on Catalan independence, as parties in Scotland have agreed about holding a referendum on independence.