Notícies Dissabte 25.01.2014 11:56 Autor/s: Jordi Pujolar ACN

Mas insists that legal referendum will be held

'We are ready to come to an agreement, but we find ourself constantly faced with a state that only knows how to say 'there will be no referendum', Mas said.

Catalonia's president, Artur Mas, answered the Spanish Prime Minister that a legal referendum would indeed be held, and he repeated his wish to come to an agreement about it with the Spanish State, citing the example of the United Kingdom and Scotland. 'We are ready to come to such an agreement, but we find ourself constantly faced with a state that only knows how to say 'there will be no referendum', Mas said.

For his part, the Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, repeated that while he was in Moncloa (the Spanish PM's official residence), no illegal referendum would be held, and Spain would not be fragmented. He made the declaration in the closing speech of the convention held by the People's Party in Barcelona, in which vice-president Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría and Ministers José Manuel Soria, Cristóbal Montoro and Jorge Fernández Díaz also spoke. The Spanish PM said once again that the future of the state could not only be decided by Catalonia and that the Spanish Constitution had to be respected.

Earlier, Artur Mas had said the PP convention celebrated this weekend in Barcelona was a 'plethora of threats' with a large contingent of ministers that will ultimately include Spain's Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy. 'I hope that it will be a convention of proposals, but that's a lot to ask,' he said. Mas remarked that the Catalan people prefer 'to contrast ideas' instead of people trying to convince us 'by saying that we'll be poor as church mice and we'll go bankrupt on the first day'. Mas said ironically that the PP 'has mentally accepted that the referendum will be held, and now they've begun a crude campaign for a NO vote.' The president spoke during the Municipal Convention of the CDC in Calella.

Mas declared that if the PP wanted to offer constrasting opinions with 'real data' there could be an 'interesting debate' and he insisted that 'he would understand if the Spanish government tried to convince us that it's better to stay in Spain, but not that they deny the Catalans the right to decide our own future'.

'A combat of ideas would be good for everyone and quite modern, but the plethora of threats doesn't get us anywhere,' Mas added. The president hopes that the presence of the Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, will serve to expand the debate of ideas but that 'those who have arrived ahead of time to prepare the ground for him have done nothing more than threaten and spread fear'.

Mas was ironic about the PP's arguments for discrediting an eventual independence of Catalonia and asked out loud if other countries 'similar to Catalonia' like Switzerland, Norway and Denmark 'are poor as church mice and if they went bankrupt on the first day?' The nationalist leader insisted that 'Catalonia can take care of itself'.

In a speech punctuated with sarcasm, Mas insisted that the PP attacks can only mean that they have 'mentally' accepted the fact that the referendum will be held. 'If they're saying it's not going to happen, why are they spending so much energy on it?' Mas believes that the PP is already campaigning for a NO vote, even as he bemoaned the 'crude' manner in which they're doing so.

Mas, who is president both of his party, the CDC, and the Catalan Government, recalled the attacks of the PP on the Catalan language: 'For a tiny number of cases, they make a huge fuss about linguistic immersion. That is what is dividing the Catalan people.' he said.

Answering Feijóo

During the CDC Municipal Convention, Mas also answered the comments made by the President of Galicia, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who, during the PP convention, said that the sovereigntist debate in Catalonia would only last '20 minutes' in any other country in Europe. 'He must not be aware that Scotland and the UK form part of Europe,' said Mas. Addressing the Catalan Minister of Education, Irene Rigau, he asked if this information was part of the primary school curriculum.

Defense of Social Programs

In the first part of his speech, Mas addressed the mayors and councilors of the CDC all over Catalonia and defended the Government's social policies, in face of the criticisms that have come from the opposition during the budget debates. He insisted that the Government is taking care of more of the population's needs with a much smaller budget than was available during the 'tripartit' era: 'We are dedicating a larger proportion of the budget to social programs than was done during so-called progressive governments.'

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