Leaders of the Popular Party (PP) and Ciudadanos have blamed the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, for the announcement by the President of the Generalitat, Pere Aragonès, that he wants to reach an agreement for a referendum in Catalonia in 2023 while from United We Can underline that nothing has changed in the position of Esquerra.
Aragonès took advantage of the institutional Christmas speech, broadcast last night on TV3 and Catalunya Ràdio, to underline that "2023 must be the year to shape the Catalan proposal for a clarity agreement", an agreed referendum that he already raised last September during the debate Parliament's general policy.
The general secretary of the PP, Cuca Gamarra, directly accused Sánchez of the Aragonès announcement on her Twitter account. "'We will do it again,' they said and now they have the invaluable collaboration of Sánchez," said the popular leader, for whom the State is weakened for this. "Pardons, penal code eliminating crimes, embezzling public money for free... The independentistas never dreamed of going so fast and going so far," she reproached.
The president of Ciudadanos, Inés Arrimadas, and the leader of the orange formation in Parliament, Carlos Carrizosa, demonstrated along the same lines. "Aragonès recognizes that this government is the best thing that could happen to separatism," said the orange leader on her Twitter account. "That is why they want to control the TC: to speed up the referendum in Catalonia," added Arrimadas, in whose opinion, "Sánchez has not only revived the process but is already leading it from Moncloa." "You have to stop him democratically in 2023," encouraged Arrimadas.
"Aragonès recognizes what we have been denouncing: separatism is delighted that Pedro Sánchez has turned Moncloa into the new headquarters of the process," warned Carrizosa, for whom this time it is "more humiliating for the Catalan constitutionalists because it has the impulse of the Government from Spain".
The head of the opposition and leader of the PSC, Salvador Illa, assured that Aragonès "knows that the referendum is not going to be held." Thus, he called on the president to find points of “consensus” and “not to set impossible horizons”. Delving into his weak parliamentary support, Illa reminded the president that when he raised the clarity agreement "the Government broke" shortly after. In statements to SER, Illa asked to prioritize, therefore, "reasonable objectives" such as the leadership of the Spanish economy. He also criticized the fact that the institutional Christmas message had -according to the socialist leader- so much political content: "The speech is to address all Catalans", he warned.
On the other hand, from United We Can, a junior partner of the Government, it is considered that nothing changes with Aragonès's speeches. For the spokesman for the confederal group in Congress, Pablo Echenique, the positions of all the parties have been known to the public for years. In an interview on TVE, Echenique stressed that all Spaniards know that ERC wants to hold a referendum and that the PSOE is not willing to do so. The purple leader recalled that the position of his formation is in support of the right to decide and that in a possible consultation they would defend that Catalonia continue to be part of Spain "perhaps with greater levels of self-government." For Echenique that answer would be "the majority" among Catalan society.
