Catalan separatists gather, prepare independence vote
BARCELONA: Catalonia’s separatist government will hold a summit on Friday to prepare an independence referendum it plans to stage in September, despite fierce opposition from Spain’s central government.
The goal of the evening meeting, which will bring together representatives of Catalan unions, separatist parties and businesses, is to draw up a ‘national pact’ for the vote in the wealthy northeastern region.
Catalan President Carles Puigdemont is seeking to rally independence supporters following recent divisions amongst separatist parties, which won a majority in the regional assembly for the first time in September 2015.
“We have to stand together and we can’t mistake who our adversary is,” Marta Pascal, general coordinator of Puigdemont’s PDC party, told AFP.
The meeting comes amid a thaw in relations between Catalonia and Spain’s central government.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s conservative Popular Party
We have to stand together and we can’t mistake who our adversary is. — Marta Pascal, general coordinator of Puigdemont’s PDC party
(PP) government has been more open to dialogue with Catalan separatists since it was sworn in for a second term last month.
He has assigned the task of handling the Catalonia issue to Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria who has set up an office in Barcelona, the Catalan capital, which she visits almost weekly.
“There has been a change in strategy on the part of the government to try to correct the separatist drift and reduce tensions,” conservative daily ABC wrote Friday in an editorial.
Santamaria has offered to negotiate with a list of economic and social demands made by Puigdemont but has refused to discuss the planned independence referendum, which her government deems illegal.
She has also acknowledged that her party made mistakes in its campaign against a 2006 statute that granted increased powers to Catalonia. — AFP