Catalonia’s last offer to Madrid

Madrid (ACN).- The Catalan president, Carles Puigdemont, will explain the final proposal for negotiating an independence referendum with the Spanish Government on Monday at Madrid’s town hall. Under the title “A referendum for Catalonia: an invitation to a democratic agreement” the Catalan president, the Vice president, Oriol Junqueras, and the Catalan Minister for Foreign Affairs, Raül Romeva, will give a conference, which will be a formal offer to the Spanish government for an “accorded democratic vote”. The conference will take place shortly after the presentation of the signatures for the National Pact for the Referendum, which includes several international personalities. The initial proposal by the Catalan president to discuss the issue in the Senate was declined by the Spanish chamber.

After it becomes every day less likely that the Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, will sit down with the President of the Catalan Government, Carles Puigdemont, to discuss an independence referendum following the Scottish example, Carles Puigdemont, Vice-president, Oriol Junqueras, and the Catalan Minister for Foreign Affairs, Raül Romeva, will give a conference in Madrid’s town hall to formally present “the last offer for an agreed referendum”. 

As Catalan government’s sources confirmed, invitations were sent out to high representatives of the Spanish political parties and the business sector. In declarations to the press, the spokesperson of the Catalan Executive, Neus Munté, said she believes that the Puigdemont's conference “will be well received by all those people who are open to listen” and that the Catalan Executive “understands that this should also be the position of the State’s government”. Munté also said that the proposal for an agreed referendum “deserves an answer, dialogue, and at which table to sit down and discuss these kinds of issues without any prejudices”. Munté said she appreciated the support received by the representatives of the parties Podemos and En Comú Podem, because “they are open to listening to the demands of the majority of the Catalan citizens”.

500,000 signatures in favor of a referendum

One of the main arguments that will be exposed by the Catalan leaders at the conference are the 500,000 signatures collected during the last several months for the National Pact for the Referendum, a popular initiative in favor of an accorded referendum following the Scottish example. Among its supporters are 40 international personalities and politicians such as Ska Keller (co-president of the Green Party group at the European Parliament), Desmond Tutu, sociolinguist Noam Chomsky or actor Viggo Mortensen.

Initially, the Catalan president had proposed holding the conference at the Spanish Senate in order to discuss an accorded referendum with the Spanish representatives, but the request was declined. Instead, the Senate urged Puigdemont to present his request to the General Commission of the Autonomous Communities, a suggestion the Catalan president, in turn, rejected, as he did not consider it an appropriate setting. Finally the Madrid city council under left-wing Manuela Carmena’s lead offered Puigdemont the Auditorium Caja de Música at Madrid’s town hall.

The president of the Catalan Popular Party (PPC), Xavier Garcia Albiol, has already announced that he will not attend the President Puigdemont's conference. According to Albiol, 30 out of every 100 Catalan pensioners would lose their pensions if Catalonia became an independent state. In this context, Albiol also announced his new campaign to carry this message to 100 Catalan municipalities.

The leader of the Catalan socialists, Miquel Iceta, celebrated that the Catalan president wants to explain his plan for an accorded referendum in Madrid. However, Iceta said that everyone in Catalonia and Spain knows there will be no agreement on an independence referendum. The socialist leader also added that if Puigdemont plans to use the same approach with his final proposal as he has done so far, the conference “will be useless”. On the other hand, Iceta considered the cession of the auditorium by Madrid’s town council “magnificent”, because “maximum efforts should be made so everybody can express himself and at the premises they want”. Furthermore, the Catalan socialist leader expressed his concern about the lack of negotiations between the Spanish and the Catalan governments.

The leader of the left-wing party Podemos, Pablo Iglesias, has confirmed his assistance at Puigdemont’s conference, because he “wants to listen to what the Catalan president has to propose regarding the relationship between Catalonia and Spain”. The leader of the biggest left-wing party in Spain also highlighted the fact that this was completely within the “institutional normality”. Xavier Domenèch, leader of En Comú Podem, the Catalan branch of the protest party, also confirmed his attendance at the conference. The secretary general of the General Workers Union (UGT), Josep Maria Álvarez, and the spokesman for the Basque Nationalist Party (PNB) in Congress, Aitor Esteban, have announced their attendance, among others. 

On Friday, the Vice president of the Spanish Executive, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría stated that the Spanish government will not attend the conference and invited Puigdemont to present his proposal before the Congress. The former Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel García-Margallo, labeled the conference in Madrid a "provocation”.