CUP insist on the “need” to meet with Puigdemont before vote of confidence

Barcelona (CNA).- The debate on the connection between the Catalan President’s vote of confidence, scheduled for the 28^th of September, and passing the budget bill for 2017 continues. Radical left pro-independence CUP have insisted on the “need” to meet with President Puigdemont and discuss the changes in the pro-independence roadmap before he submits to a vote of confidence. Although CUP have stuck with their idea that voting in favour of Puigdemont doesn’t necessarily mean passing the budget bill for 2017, they do admit that both concepts “have to be linked”. “It would be nonsense if the bill for 2017 didn’t foresee an allocation for the unilateral referendum on independence”, CUP pointed out, referring to the mechanism which the Parliament approved two weeks ago as a core part of Catalonia’s pro-independence roadmap and which the Spanish Constitutional Court (TC) suspended soon afterwards.

“We have repeatedly asked for a meeting”, CUP’s new secretaries, Xavier Generó and Natalia Sánchez explained this Tuesday in an interview with Catalunya Ràdio. Thus, they refuse to negotiate with the Catalan Ministry for Economy before having agreed on a new pro-independence roadmap with President Puigdemont. According to CUP, Catalonia’s next steps on its roadmap towards independence have changed after the Parliament passed the conclusions of the Committee to Study the Constitutive Process; a text which established the possibility of launching a “unilateral mechanism” to achieve independence. Although the TC suspended the text soon after the Parliament’s approval, CUP insist that this spirit should be reflected in the budget bill for 2017. “It would be nonsense if the bill for 2017 didn’t foresee an allocation for the unilateral referendum on independence”, pointed out Generó and Sánchez.

In this vein, CUP explained that they have refused to meet with the Catalan Ministry for Economy, since they want to agree on the pro-independence roadmap first. Moreover, they pointed out that the Ministry is already aware of CUP’s demands and priorities regarding the bill for 2017, since they already made these clear in the negotiations for the 2016 budget, which they ultimately rejected. “It has to be a bill for an exceptional term of office”, they explained.

Regarding Puigdemont’s vote of confidence, CUP stated that the President’s proposal should include a clear schedule and defined goals in order to “culminate” the pro-independence process; a culmination that should imply “the democratic breakaway from the Spanish state”.