Catalan leader says region has earned independence

BARCELONA, Spain — The leader of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont, said Tuesday evening his region had earned the right to independence from Spain, but he immediately suspended the process to allow for talks with the central government in Madrid.

In a long-awaited speech to the regional parliament in Barcelona, Puigdemont said the Catalan people offered a “mandate” for independence, but he left open the door to negotiations and reiterated a call for mediation.

The speech appeared to constitute a tight balancing act, defying Madrid’s denunciations of the region’s independence referendum as illegal and invalid, while stopping short of offering an immediate and outright declaration of independence. Puigdemont also was trying to placate several factions within his unwieldy alliance of separatist lawmakers, who control a majority of the seats in the Catalan parliament after winning 48 percent of the votes in 2015.

The carefully worded speech, however, confused some lawmakers, and as it ended, Puigdemont did not receive any applause from the far-left secessionist lawmakers whose support has been key to keep the independence movement on course.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy of Spain has rejected any dialogue with Catalan separatists unless they abandon plans for secession, and Puigdemont and his allies could in theory be arrested for sedition, and the Catalan Parliament disbanded.

Puigdemont, however, left open the possibility for dialogue, while defending the decision to hold the referendum backing independence.

“We are here because on Sunday, Oct. 1, Catalonia held a referendum and did so in extreme conditions,” he said. “There were violent police attacks against voters who were just waiting to deposit their ballot paper. More than 800 people were treated by medical services and the world saw it.”

Hard-line separatists had hoped Puigdemont would follow through on the results of the highly disputed referendum. To pressure Puigdemont into sticking to his promise, the main separatist associations had called for a citizens’ rally near the parliament building to push the Catalan political leadership to stick to the independence pledge.

Lawmakers from Puigdemont’s conservative party, however, were wary about further escalating tensions with Madrid, especially after several prominent companies announced plans to move their headquarters from Catalonia because of legal uncertainties of a secession.