Puigdemont will urge Spain to call a binding referendum

Barcelona (CNA).- Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, confirmed this Sunday before the international press his intention to call for a binding referendum in Catalonia. He committed to doing so on the 28th of September, coinciding with the vote of confidence to which he will submit in the Parliament. Puigdemont also predicted that there will be constitutive elections in Catalonia within a year, after the next Catalan National Day, as this is established in the pro-independence roadmap. The Catalan President also commented on Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs José Manuel García Margalló’s recent statement. The Spanish Minister stated that Catalonia’s political “defiance” is worse than “a terrorist attack”, since “Spain’s dissolution” would be “irreversible”. Puigdemont said that he considered these words not only “inopportune” but “harmful to victims of terrorism”.

“On the 28th of September I will insist on suggesting [the holding of a binding referendum in Catalonia] since it is a possibility which shouldn’t be dismissed”, he stated. “If we can use the referendum as an effective and secure mechanism for people to decide we must not reject it”, he added and emphasised that the referendum is the common point of most of the citizens’ aspirations. “Indeed this is the origin of our revindication and even those who would opt to vote ‘no’ [to Catalonia’s independence] agree on that”.