Spanish Government reiterates its wish for “dialogue”, but closes door to a referendum that would “liquidate the nation”

Barcelona (CNA).- The Vice President of the Spanish Government, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, stressed this Wednesday her executive’s wish for dialogue with the Catalan Government, but closed the door to a self-determination referendum, because it “liquidates the essence of the [Spanish] nation”. The Vice President also said that any reform of the Constitution “requires consensus on the point of departure and arrival” and achieving “an agreement on the diagnosis of the problems and the solutions”, a goal that currently is not possible given the disagreement seen in the Spanish Parliament, she added. Sáenz de Santamaría made these statements in response to the parliamentary questions from the Catalan Socialist MP Meritxell Batet and the spokesman of the Spanish alternative left party Podemos, Iñigo Errejón. Both of them requested the executive to accept reform of the Constitution to respond to Catalonia’s independence movement. 

he PSC MP reproached Sáenz Santamaría and said that beyond gestures, the Spanish Government has neither made any step to address the conflict with the Catalan Government nor to “incorporate into its daily attitude the plurality of the country”. Besides, she requested of the Vice President a “policy of agreement” and to open her mind to the constitutional reform. 

“We must work with objectives that are as worthwhile as the right to live and build together an exciting project, and hence we must stop hiding behind the Constitution”, said Batet, adding that “it cannot be that the Spanish Government does not have an answer for the citizens of Catalonia, nor that the Catalan Government leaves without voicing its citizens wishes to the Conference of [Autonomous Communities] Presidents”, referring to the announcement of the Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, that he will not attend the meeting. 

Sáenz de Santamaría replied to Batet by insisting that her Government will work “on the search for consensus”, “within the law” and “respecting the law” and noted that to the Spanish Government the Constitution “is not a parapet, but the framework of coexistence for everyone”. “We have always been concerned of the real needs of Catalans”, because “this government is also a government of Catalonia and all Catalans”, she added. 

 The spokesman of Podemos, Iñigo Errejón, highlighted that the tribute to the Constitution has to do with “its update according to the current state of the country, not how it was 40 years ago”. Furthermore, Errejón criticised the Conservative People’s Party (PP) for thinning the Constitution with “its narrow view of the Spanish nation”. In this regard, he lamented that the Spanish Government has “nothing to offer Catalonia, apart from threats”. 

In response to Errejón, Sáenz de Santamaría recalled that the Constitution has been reformed twice, but noted that in order to reform it again “it is necessary to have consensus from the beginning”. “Reforming the Constitution is a task of more than a noisy minority, because the Constitution should cover us all”, she claimed.