Puigdemont: “The referendum will absolve what the Spanish justice system sentenced”

 

 

Barcelona (CNA).- Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, commented on the two-year ban from holding public office which former Catalan President, Artur Mas has been sentenced to for allowing the 9-N symbolic vote on independence in 2014. “The referendum will absolve what the Spanish justice system has sentenced”, stated Puigdemont and lamented that despite being “expected”, the Catalan Supreme Court’s sentences are bad news and goes against those 2.3 million citizens who participated in the 9-N symbolic consultation. However, Puigdemont assured that the Government’s roadmap towards independence remains unchanged and insisted that the referendum will be carried out “between the end of summer and the beginning of autumn” this year. Pro-independence radical left CUP, the main partner of governing cross-party ‘Junts Pel Sí’, went a bit further and called for “disobedience” as “the only way to reach independence”.

Puigdemont assured that Catalonia’s pro-independence process will move forward regardless of the Catalan Supreme Court’s verdict. Indeed, he assured that the “process emerges stronger from each difficulty it faces”. “If we have come this far it is because we have overcome many obstacles, and this will not only be overcome but it will stimulate all those who doubt our determination to move forward”, he said. “If we haven’t been stopped so far it is because we all know that the real sovereignty lies in the citizens and they ask us to be by their side”, he stated. 

CUP: “Dialogue is dead”

CUP MP, Mireia Boya said that she felt that “the state of emergency kicked off” with this Monday’s sentences against former Catalan President, Artur Mas, and former Catalan Ministers Joana Ortega and Irene Rigau. She called to assume “disobedience” as “the only way to reach independence”. “Today all those who expressed their opinion in the 9-N have been banned from public office” she lamented and declared that the dialogue with the Spanish state over calling a referendum “is dead”. 

ERC: The sentence is “despicable and antidemocratic”

Left wing pro-independence ERC, the main party within governing cross-party list ‘Junts Pel Sí’, together with former liberal ‘CDC’ warned that the court’s resolution “won’t stop the Catalan pro-independence process”. ERC MP Sergi Sabrià said that he considered the Catalan Supreme Court’s sentence “despicable and antidemocratic”.

‘Ciutadans’: “Catalonia doesn’t need any martyrs”

Spanish Unionist ‘Ciutadans’ considers this Monday’s sentence to have “slammed the door on a new referendum” in Catalonia. “Now [Mas, Ortega and Rigau] are aware that they committed an illegality”, said ‘Ciutadans’ MP, Carlos Carrizosa. He also lamented that the summonsed appeared before the court “as saviours of the motherland” and now intend to be “martyrs”. “Catalonia doesn’t need neither of these things”, he said but “public servants who fight corruption rather than thinking of their own interests”. Finally, he recommended Puigdemont “to call elections if he is not able to get out of the labyrinth he is in”.

PPC: The sentence is “a warning” to Puigdemont

The Catalan People’s Party (PPC) also commented on this Monday’s sentence over the 9-N consultation. According to its leader, Xavier García Albiol, the court’s decision “restores the Rule of Law in Catalonia” and constitutes “a clear warning” to the Catalan Government. “It is a very sad day because for the first time ever a Catalan President has been condemned for disobedience” said Albiol, but added that “it is comforting at the same time” since “it proves that nobody is beyond the law in a democracy”.