CATALAN president Quim Torra has given his Spanish counterpart a one-month ultimatum to offer a dialogue on self-determination or lose the support of pro-independence members in Spain’s Congress.
His remarks directed at Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez came as he set out his priorities for the Catalan government at its first full session after the summer recess.
Torra said he had written to Sánchez seeking an early meeting and urging him to use the examples of the UK and Canada in allowing a referendum on self-determination.
“We have been very patient … but the patience is not infinite,” he said.
“If this proposal does not arrive before November, independentism cannot guarantee any kind of stability in the Congress of deputies in Pedro Sánchez ... I will never renounce the mandate of October 1 because the right of self-determination does not belong to me, neither to the government nor to the parliament, it is an inalienable right of the people of Catalonia.”
Sánchez leads a minority government and had relied on pro-indy members’ support to oust Mariano Rajoy.
Meanwhile, Andreu Martínez, the head of the Catalan police – Mossos d’Esquadra – has blamed “radical groups seeking confrontation” for his officers’ action against protesters on Monday night, following a day of demonstrations marking the October independence referendum.
Videos on social media appeared to show Mossos officers with riot shields and batons, clashing with crowds in Barcelona and Girona.
Martinez defended the Mossos response: “Operating decisions are not political. “Our action is not ideological. We still analyse the facts. If there is no violent action, the police will not act.”
However, some claimed on social media that the Mossos had over-reacted.
Anita, who took part in a protest in Barcelona, told The National: “People arrived in front of parliament. They shouted sentences about 1-O and were singing El Segadors, but they didn’t try the door of the parliament to go in, they didn’t burn containers, nothing violent. But the Mossos have banged the people and shot water guns at them.”
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