Local Socialist leader says Catalonia 'has no right to self-determination '

Catalonia is a nation but "has no right to self-determination". That is the opinion of Núria Parlón, a leading figure in the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC), who has just recently been placed in charge of social cohesion and integration policy on the executive council of the affiliated Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE). While recognizing that Catalonia is "undoubtedly" a nation, Parlón rejected an independence referendum during a radio interview on RAC1. "It is not the right solution," she said. The Socialist politician and mayor of Santa Coloma de Gramenet, a city in the Barcelona metropolitan area, said that rather than embarking on independence movements, politicians should try to reform Spain into a truly plurinational state.

Parlón pointed out that the PSOE, the main Spanish opposition party, has already defined Spain as "plurinational" during its recent party conference, something that she sees as a step in the right direction. The mayor of Santa Coloma de Gramenet said that pro-independence politicians should now "give up self-determination" and affirmed that denying Catalonia's right to an independence vote is not undemocratic. "They accuse us, who are not in favor of a unilateral referendum, to be less democratic, and this is not true," she said.