Dialogue but never on independence, says Rajoy

The Spanish president, Mariano Rajoy, said on Wednesday that his government will engage in “dialogue” with whoever emerges as victor of the coming Catalonia elections. Yet he is not willing to tackle the possible Catalan independence, because he guaranteed that his party will ensure “Catalonia continues to be Spain and Europe.”

Whilst accompanying his Catalan counterpart, Xavier Garcia Albiol, the leader of the Catalan wing of Spain’s ruling People’s Party (PP), in the belt town of Badalona where Albiol himself was once mayor, he said that Catalonia remaining in Spain is the “safe” option. The event took place outside the PP’s local party headquarters, and forms part of a series of appearances by Rajoy in Catalonia in the run up to the snap elections, which he himself called.

Not a weak government

Rajoy promised for dialogue after the deposed and incarcerated vice-president of Catalonia, Oriol Junqueras, wrote him a letter from prison in which he called on the Spanish premier to “respect the result” of the December 21 election. Rajoy also took the opportunity to accuse the dismissed Catalan president Carles Puigdemont of trying to take advantage of a supposed “weak government” in Madrid for his own “political interests.”

“But the (Spanish) government was not weak,” he went on to say, “because it applied the law even though it had 137 seats, the Catalan government ceased to exist while (the Spanish government) obtained the support of Europe without exceptions.”

Rajoy landed in Catalonia on Wednesday, and will make appearances on three more separate occasions before the Catalan elections, showing support for the PP in Catalonia and making sure voters who might choose Ciutadans instead remain with PP, according to sources close to the party.

He asked for Catalans who have previously voted for PP to do so again, claiming that it was thanks to this support his government could obtain 137 ministers in the Spanish parliament. Thanks to this, he stated, “Spain continues to create employment in Spain and Catalonia.” He also said that his party was the only option to prevent Catalonia leaving Spain and Europe.