The president of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, publishes an article this Tuesday in the British newspaper Financial Times - the same one that already defended in an editorial the amnesty agreed with Pedro Sánchez - in which he highlights the role of the pro-independence parties in the formation of the new Spanish Government and the importance of a referendum in Catalonia.
In the article, the Catalan president defines Catalonia as "a European nation, open to the world and linked by its language, Catalan", and it is then that he makes the first reference to a referendum: "It wants to be free, and it wants to decide democratically and peacefully how it is governed".
In the writing, Aragonès states that 80% of the Catalan population "believes that the sovereignty conflict will be resolved with a referendum" and recognizes that the Government's priority "has always been to reach an agreement with Spain." "But the Spanish authorities have always rejected it and have criminalized our democratic political movement," he laments.
However, he highlights how after the 28-J elections "a new scenario has opened up." "Pedro Sánchez has been president thanks to the votes of the pro-independence parties, and this gives us great strength and democratic responsibility," he says. And at the same time, he talks about the amnesty agreed with the central government: "These votes have also been crucial to starting a new relationship between Catalonia and Spain."
For the Catalan president, the amnesty "is completely legal and consistent with the Spanish and European rule of law." For this reason, he believes that Pedro Sánchez "has to be brave" and resolve the conflict "like the United Kingdom and Scotland, or Canada and Quebec." "Catalonia is prepared to win or lose in a referendum, but what they cannot ask us is to renounce our national rights," he says.
At the end of his article, Pere Aragonès thanks the steps taken by Sánchez but also advances that the socialist "will have to fulfill his commitments and we will ensure that this is the case." "Catalonia is not asking for anything extraordinary," he says, and assures that with Spain "we want to maintain excellent neighborly relations within the EU." "We just want to have the opportunity to decide our future," he says.
"I will continue working until the independence of my country has been achieved democratically and I will not be intimidated by anything or anyone," says Aragonès. "Because of responsibility with the democratic will of the citizens of Catalonia and because it is a just and equitable cause," the Catalan concludes in his article published this Tuesday.
