Pro-independence politicians mark referendum anniversary with different views on way forward

On the sixth anniversary of the 2017 Catalan self-determination referendum deemed illegal by Spain, and pro-independce political leaders are marking the day with their visions for how to advance their agenda. 

Pere Aragonès, president of Catalonia, celebrated the "joint position" achieved by pro-independence parties in the current political climate. 

This week, his party, Esquerra Republicana (ERC), and the other mainstream political party in favor of splitting from Spain, Junts per Catalunya, reached a consensus in a parliamentary motion to only back a Prime Ministerial bid of Pedro Sánchez if the Socialist leader commits to work toward setting the conditions for a referendum. 

July's general election in Spain left a hung parliament, and leader of the conservative People's Party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, failed in two attempts this week to be named Prime Minister, despite his party winning most votes and MPs in the summer vote.

Now, Sánchez will have the chance to garner enough support to carry on in Moncloa for another term, but to do so, he will need the backing of the pro-independence parties, who will only support the Socialist candidate at a high price. 

Aragonès also hailed the "firmness" of the independence camp in negotiations with Spain. "Let everyone be clear: amnesty alone does not solve the conflict," he said, speaking at an institutional event in Fonollosa, just outside Manresa in central Catalonia. "The referendum is at the center of the resolution of the conflict," the president said. 

Accompanied by the presidency minister, Laura Vilagrà, and the foreign minister, Meritxell Serret, Aragonès spoke at an even in Plaça 1 October in Fonollosa, the same square where Spanish police officers intervened to forcefully remove ballot boxes and charged at the gathered voters. 

Meanwhile, former president Carles Puigdemont, who was the head of the Catalan government for the referendum vote six years ago, called for "a return to the original formula" of the independence push. 

This, for Puigdemont, is the method "that makes us winners and allows us to maintain our position against Spain which has never abandoned its original formula."

The ex-president said the vote was possible "thanks to political unity, the leadership of the institutions, and civil, democratic and non-violent mobilization."

The Junts politician warned that "everything that departs from this masterful formula, departs from victory." 

Puigdemont also took aim at other pro-independence parties, saying that "discrediting and delegitimizing" the referendum takes the movement away from "victory."

The former president maintains that the independence camp "broke the historical continuity between the regime imposed" by the Spanish king by holding the 2017 vote.