Main candidate to lead Spanish Socialist Party would accept a "legal" Catalan self-determination vote

Barcelona (ACN).- Eduardo Madina, who is probably the person best positioned to become the new Secretary General of the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) in July, stated he "is not scared" of citizen participation if it is "legal". In an interview in the SER radio station on Monday, Madina emphasised that "if there are possibilities to reach an agreement within the legal framework, the citizen participation mechanisms through legal methods seem alright to me ". Referring to Catalonia's self-determination vote, he said: "If everything is done within the legal framework, I am not scared of citizen participation". He also insisted that the Spanish Constitution can be reformed and that it should be done in order to push for a federal system. The PSOE will elect its new leader in a party congress to be held on the 19^th and 20^th July, after Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba resigned as Secretary General because of the poor results of the last European Elections.

According to Eduardo Madina, the debate on Catalonia's self-determination vote should be framed within a broader debate regarding Spain's territorial organization and the reform of the Spanish Constitution to shape a true federal system. However, he did not exclude the possibility of celebrating a self-determination vote in Catalonia, if it was "legal" and agreed with the Spanish authorities. Madina seems to embrace the thesis of the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC), which ran in the last Catalan Parliament elections in November 2012 promising their support to "legal" and "agreed" self-determination vote. However, the PSOE stated it was against Catalonia's right to self-determination and obliged the PSC to stop supporting self-determination initiatives despite having run in the past elections promising the contrary. Now, if Madina reached the PSOE's leadership, this stance might change.

On top of this, he was also asked about the PSC's internal crisis, since its Secretary General, Pere Navarro, resigned last week. Madina stated that the Socialists' crisis in Catalonia is not linked to the fact that they have given their support to the so-called "third way" between the current status quo and independence, pushing for a Constitutional reform. According to him, the PSC's crisis is due "to the changes and dynamism of Catalonia's political atmosphere", indirectly referring to the self-determination process. "There is always a price to pay when somebody proposes a solution in times of confrontation", he concluded.