Parliament speaker asks for 'clarity pact' to hold referendum

Catalan parliament speaker Roger Torrent told the press on Thursday that Catalonia and Spain should strive for a “clarity pact” detailing how and when a future independence referendum could be held.

Spain’s acting foreign minister and future High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the EU, Josep Borrell, was quick to retort: “I don’t know how many times it has to be said, how many times the President has to repeat the obvious: there is no constitutional way of ever holding a Catalan secession referendum in Spain.”

According to Borrell, who has thus far been the only member of the Spanish government to respond to Torrent’s comments, the right to self-determination is actually the right to secede, which is not recognized by international law.

He also said that the Scottish independence vote was an exception as there was "nothing in the British constitution" making it illegal.

Torrent stated that if the Spanish government were to continuously impede Catalan attempts to vote on the issue, “persistent mobilization would make something that seems impossible now become inevitable.”