Puigdemont: “We need more coordination with the CUP”

Barcelona (CNA).- The Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, said that “more coordination” and a “better exchange of information” between the government and the radical left CUP is needed in order to rebuild trust and move forward in the independence process. “We need more coordination with the CUP”, he stressed in an exclusive interview with the CNA. Puigdemont and representatives from the CUP held a two-hours long meeting on Friday to rebuild trust after the CUP’s veto to the 2016 budget kept their relations frozen. Sources from both parts said the meeting was held in a “positive environment”.

“The government needs parliamentary stability to move forward in our disconnection roadmap”, Carles Puigdemont said to the CNA. The Catalan President, who is facing a confidence vote on the 28^th of September, added that Catalonia needs a budget and that it would be “nonsense” for the CUP to vote ‘yes’ in the confidence ballot and then rebuff the 2017 government budget.

Puigdemont said his comments about the budget are not an attempt to “blackmail” the CUP, but a way to urge for “coherence”. “The budget will be based on the compromises assumed in the confidence vote”, he stressed.

According to Puigdemont, trust “cannot be negotiated, you have it or you do not have it”. That is why both the Catalan Government and the CUP are hoping that meetings such as that of Friday will help pave the way for a positive understanding between the two parts. In fact, Friday’s meeting was an opportunity to discuss the confidence vote but also other important votes expected in the next few months, including the budget and the laws to disconnect from Spain.

Puigdemont said that in the next phase of the independence process politicians cannot be fighting against each other about “anecdotes” or “minor issues”, and allies need to regain trust. “We cannot clash because one of the parts things that the other is not serious enough or that it only wants to cause trouble”, he pointed out.

The Catalan President admitted that the government needs to “share more” of its independence plans with the CUP but warned that the left-wingers also need to show their support on the 28^th of September vote. 

Asked about including in his plans one of the main political proposals of the CUP, the Unilateral Referendum of Independence (RUI), Puigdemont said that the government is studying all options. However, he stated that for now the roadmap continues to be the same: to call constituent elections and, afterwards, a referendum on the constitution of a hypothetical Catalan Republic. 

The Catalan President said that after the confidence vote citizens will have a “clearer and more precise” scenario of what is going to happen, although this does not necessarily mean that he will announce a date for a referendum or for new elections. “I have a clear compromise to implement our roadmap”, he stressed.

The Catalan President explained that, whatever happens, he will choose an “irrefutable option”, a mechanism allowing Catalans to show to the world that “there is a majority for independence”. “It’s not time for tactics, we need to go step by step”, he said. Puigdemont refused to say when there could be a referendum, but added that “all decisions should be taken” by summer 2017.