Madrid, Mar. 20, (dpa/GNA) – Catalonia’s regional president Pere Aragonès has said a legal independence referendum in the region in north-east Spain will take place at some point.
At an event organized by the Europa Press news agency in the Spanish capital on Wednesday, Aragonés said that he was seeking to hold a binding vote agreed with the central government and that he was sure this would one day happen.
He was prepared to “talk about everything” with Madrid, he said. “But if a conflict over sovereignty cannot be resolved in a democracy, where can it be resolved?” he asked rhetorically.
The left-wing central government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has promised the separatists an amnesty for all “Catalanistas” who came into conflict with the law, including during the failed secession attempt in 2017.
The draft bill for the amnesty is still being debated in parliament, but Sánchez continues to rule out an independence referendum.
Aragonés is convinced that the referendum “will become a reality,” and he pointed out that the amnesty was also labelled “impossible” by the central government for a long time.
“The majority of Catalans want to decide on their future and the Spanish institutions have so far prevented them from doing so,” he said.
An early parliamentary election will be held in Catalonia on May 12. In addition to the regional president’s Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC), several other parties in the so-called autonomous community are endeavouring to separate the region from Spain.
These include the conservative Junts of Carles Puigdemont, who fled into exile in Belgium in 2017.
The 61-year-old announced last week via his lawyer that he would return to Spain for the first time for the election and stand as the lead candidate for Junts.
Puigdemont will also accept being arrested if the amnesty is not enacted by then, said lawyer Gonzalo Boye. However, no date has yet been set for his return. Puigdemont is expected to provide further information on Thursday.