Catalan VP insists on secession
Says Madrid’s actions leave ‘no other option’
BARCELONA, Spain — Spanish authorities are leaving separatists in Catalonia with “no other option” but to push ahead with declaring independence for the wealthy northeastern region, its vice president said Wednesday.
Spain has announced plans to fire Catalonia’s government and directly manage its affairs after it held an independence vote that was declared illegal by the country’s constitutional court. Residents of Catalonia, including many who don’t back independence, have been aghast at what they feel is Spain’s heavy-handed response.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Vice President Oriol Junqueras said his party — one of two in the separatist coalition now governing Catalonia — rejected calling an early regional election as a way out of the political deadlock because it believes that Catalans already have chosen independence.
Spain’s Constitutional Court has ruled against the Oct. 1 referendum Catalonia’s government held and central authorities in Madrid say the vote’s results are invalid. The vast majority of those who voted backed independence but the vote had numerous problems, including police violence to stop it.
Junqueras said his party would “work toward building a republic, because we understand that there is a democratic mandate to establish such a republic.”
He said he was speaking only on behalf of his Republican Left party and not for the regional government. Catalan President Carles Puigdemont is to address regional lawmakers in parliament Thursday evening.
Junqueras spoke with the AP amid frantic jockeying among Catalonia’s political elite on how to respond to plans by Spanish authorities to fire them and take over managing the region until a new election is held.
“The Spanish government is giving us no other option than to defend the civil rights and citizens’ rights through the best tools that our institutions have,” Junqueras said.
Puigdemont has not signaled what he intends to do, but called a late Wednesday meeting of his cabinet.
But Junqueras ruled an election out, saying it would be wrong and illogical “to renounce the democratic mandate that we have from citizens.”
In Madrid, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said his government’s plans to take control of Catalonia’s key affairs and halt the region’s push for independence were “exceptional” measures that he hoped would not be needed for long.
The conservative prime minister told Parliament that invoking constitutional authority over Catalonia was the “only possible” way to bring the region back in line with Spanish law.