‘Huge leaps forward’ for independence made despite ‘mistakes’, says jailed vice president

The Catalan vice president, Oriol Junqueras, jailed by the Spanish National Court two weeks ago, is convinced that Catalonia has made “huge leaps forward” for independence in the past few months. He said that after the recent clash of wills with Spain, Catalonia is now “in Europe and on the world’s map”. For him, “the first step to getting recognition is that our reality become known, and in this sense, we’ve achieved a great success.” However, he did criticize himself by admitting some “mistakes” made by the Catalan government.

“It was naïve to think that the Spanish State would not dare to apply these levels of repression,” Junqueras said. “Or that the European Union would not tolerate that Spain’s People’s Party government, in the name of the Spanish unity, would deal so many blows against the Catalan citizens and institutions.” However, he thinks that it was Brussels who “obligated” Spain to call elections as early as December 21, and therefore not undertaking a long and complete takeover of Catalan self-rule.