Mas opens the door to other parties to join the government agreement on the investiture debate

Barcelona (ACN).- On Thursday, the debate about the election of the next President of the Catalan Government kicked off in the Catalan Parliament. Artur Mas, who is the leader of the Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition (CiU) and has been chairing the Catalan Executive for the last two years, has his re-election secured, after the parliamentary stability agreement signed with the Left-Wing Catalan Independence Party (ERC) for the entire legislative term. In his investiture speech, Mas offered the other parties that support the organisation of a self-determination vote the possibility to join the agreement reached with the ERC and even to sit in the Catalan Government. Mas stated he will keep the offer open until the end of the legislative term. He explained that “the hardness of the situation and the magnitude of the challenges to be faced advised making such an offer”. These challenges are “the worst part of the economic recession”, “the crisis of public finances” and “the country’s greatest political operation of the last three centuries”. Regarding Catalonia’s self-determination process and the citizen vote, Mas asked all the parties to work together to find a consensus and he has guaranteed that Catalonia’s self-determination process will also be negotiated, completely ruling out a unilateral independence declaration. Besides, regarding the economic recession and the need to reduce the public deficit, Mas announced he will call for a summit with all parties to agree on the “impassable limits” of the Welfare state, since further budget cuts will be required despite the new taxes that will be created.

Artur Mas started his speech by clearly announcing his intention to call for a self-determination vote this term to allow the Catalan people to decide on their collective future. Mas, who has been chairing the Catalan Government for the last two years, stated that over this time “not a single bridge with Spain has been rebuilt, on the contrary hostilities and attacks against Catalonia’s self-government are each day clearer and more intense”. “Catalonia should accept that Spain does not want to be changed, and it is its right to not want to be changed”, he said. However, “Spain should also accept that Catalonia does not want to be absorbed, nor assimilated or homogenised”, he added. Therefore, following the mandate from the elections celebrated a month ago in which parties supporting a Catalan state obtained 54% of the votes and parties defending the celebration of a self-determination vote within the next term even if the Spanish Government opposes it obtained 64.4%, Mas solemnly announced he “will consult the Catalan people about their political and national future”. According to Mas, Catalonia’s self-determination process is required to “guarantee its economic development, its survival [as a nation and culture] and to strengthen its Welfare State”.

For Mas, Catalonia is about to start “the most difficult, the most decisive and the most thrilling term” since democracy was reintroduced after the end of Franco’s dictatorship. According to him, Catalonia is facing 3 main challenges: the worst part of the economic recession”, “the crisis of public finances” and “the country’s greatest political operation of the last three centuries since Barcelona’s fall in 1714”. This “political operation” should help Catalonia “to become a free country among the world’s free nations”. With this point he emphasised that “a free country” is “not an isolated or a self-centred country, but a country whose citizens are those responsible for their own destiny”. Mas lamented that sometimes certain people “tend to dramatise – reaching levels of hysteria and ridiculousness – facts or situations that are very basic; and freedom, at an individual or collective level, is one of those basic and normal facts”.

“It is not the time for populism and demagogy, and even less for cynicism”, he underlined. The required attitude, according to Mas, is that of “overcoming, not that of resignation”. For this reason he asked for the cooperation of all the parties supporting the call for a self-determination vote. They represent 79.3% of the MPs in the new Catalan Parliament, if the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC), which proposes a reform of the Spanish Constitution to allow the referendum, is included. Mas also asked citizens and civil society organisations to participate in the process. “A co-responsibility and co-leadership scenario is needed”, he said. “I appeal to this chamber’s responsibility, all of it, to facilitate a negotiated process, with dialogue, looking for the legal frameworks to back it and with the will to reach a consensus on the procedures to make [the vote] happen”, he emphasised.

Besides, Mas announced that he will call for a summit with all the political parties before approving the Catalan Government’s budget for 2013. The reason is to look for a consensus on which are the “impassable limits” of the Welfare State, as further budget cuts will be needed to meet the 0.7% deficit target, imposed by the Spanish Government. Mas emphasised that more budget cuts will be needed despite the creation of new taxes and raising previous ones in order to increase revenue by €1 billion in 2013. He also added that some of the budget cuts and taxes will be “reversible” once the situation improves. In addition, he underlined that he will negotiate with the Spanish Government to relax the deficit targets for 2013, taking into account the fact that the Autonomous Communities are those managing the Welfare State services almost exclusively.