Puigdemont: “Spanish executive tries to counteract our explanations abroad”

London (CNA).- Catalan President Carles Puigdemont’s official trip to London “allowed the Catalan government to give explanations” to several “European agents” and “refutes the Spanish mantra, according to which the Catalan process doesn’t interest anybody”, stated Puigdemont. According to the Catalan President, Catalonia’s political process generates so much interest that “even the Spanish government has sent people to travel thousands of kilometres in order to counteract” the explanations that the Catalan government has been giving “first hand”. “It would be much cheaper for them to travel to Barcelona and discuss which agreement we can reach in order to give an answer to the democratic will of thousands of people”, he added. Puigdemont made these statements while visiting the headquarters of the Catalan bank ‘Banc de Sabadell’, in the City. 

“We evaluate this trip very positively”, assured Puigdemont before the press. According to the Catalan President, all the meetings held during his official trip have approached one of the main objectives of the Government’s agenda, which is “to explain” the situation in Catalonia “first hand”. “We want the European agents, which are not only political but also economic, to get to know what is going on in Catalonia, why it is going on and what we plan to do in the following months” he explained and emphasised the importance of “having direct access to the Catalan government’s intentions”.

The Catalan President explained that he met with a financial forum in the City attended by representatives from several financial institutions and investment funds which are “interested in Catalonia’s political process”, as well as “with Catalan and non-Catalan companies which have interests in the UK” and “different communities here which are interested in what’s going on in Catalonia and in getting to know it first-hand”

Spain “counteracts” the Government’s explanations

Puigdemont emphasised that Catalonia’s push for independence and the possibility of becoming an independent state “generates much interest” at an international scale and “refutes the Spanish mantra, according to which the Catalan process doesn’t interest anybody”. Such is the interest that “even the Spanish government has sent people to travel thousands of kilometres in order to counteract these explanations” that the Catalan Government is giving “first hand”. “It would be much cheaper for them to travel to Barcelona and discuss which agreement we can reach in order to give an answer to the democratic will of thousands of people”, he concluded.

For his part, current Spanish Vice-President Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría admitted these actions of the Spanish government in order to “explain” the situation in Catalonia and counterpart the pro-independence speech. She justified this by saying that “everybody is very surprised to hear some things that President Puigdemont and the members of his government usually say”. According to Sáenz de Santamaría, both President Puigdemont and former Catalan President Artur Mas are “prone to travelling and explaining things not as they are”. Thus, it is “normal” for the Spanish government to “explain it to other countries which may not know Spain’s constitutional framework”, she concluded.

Puigdemont interviewed by CNBC

Puigdemont was also interviewed in London by the North American TV channel CNBC. During the conversation, the Catalan President admitted that Spain’s “incapacity to govern the complexity and find smart solutions creates many worries not only in Spain but in Europe”. He explained that Catalonia “already takes decisions in a sovereign way, independently from what happens in the central government or Spanish parties”.

Puigdemont stated that Spanish President, Mariano Rajoy “has been a problem” so far but also that he doesn’t see “political parties ready to make big sacrifices to move forward with the government” in Spain nor to “offer an agreement that would respect the wishes of the people of Catalonia”.

Puigdemont also insisted that “a unilateral declaration of independence is not the best solution” and that the Catalan government plan is to reach “an agreement to consult over the independence of Catalonia. And we will not abandon this plan until the end”.