Puigdemont declares independence for Catalonia but suspends it in search of dialogue

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In its formal request, the central government gives Catalan premier Carles Puigdemont five days to confirm whether he has declared Catalonia’s independence or not. If the answer is affirmative, the document provides another deadline ending on Thursday, October 19 for Catalan authorities to rectify and prevent the application of Section 155 of the Spanish Consitution, which would allow Madrid to temporarily take over Catalonia’s internal affairs, EFE reports.

Joan Tardá of Catalan Republican Left (ERC) to the PP government: “You have opted for an increase in repression. We are a peaceful people. I’m not saying that we are defenseless but we are a people who have chosen to be peaceful, perhaps also because we are a nation without a state, and because if we are where we are, and still are what we are, and have maintained our language with great difficulty, it’s because we couldn’t waste any time, and had to devote great efforts, and generations, to maintaining that which others, for historical reasons, had already assured for themselves. We haven’t even been tempted to be violent, we couldn’t waste the time.”

Yolanda Díaz, of the Galician Communist Party: “Don’t take measures that there is no going back on, which will lead to confrontation. This is the time for words. We have reached this point because you irresponsibly liquidated the Statute that was approved by this chamber. Mrs Robles, don’t let the PP appropriate the Constitution, Alianza Popular (the PP’s predecessor) did not vote for it. You do not understand Catalonia and you want to go back to the days prior to May 15. From Galicia, we tell you to stop this hate against Catalona and against Spain. The demand for the referendum is the last way out: it may be today, tomorrow or in five years, but it will happen.”

Xavier Domenech of Unidos Podemos: “If you are unable to talk, then leave, for the good of Spain, for the good of Catalonia.”

Rivera: “Can you imagine France or Germany praying to see what the (radical pro-independence party) CUP decides to do? No, right?”

Albert Rivera of Ciudadanos: “Yesterday was a sad day for those of us who want to keep being Catalan, Spanish and European; we witnessed a group of irresponsible politicians turn the regional parliament into a theater in order to stage a coup against Spanish democracy.”

Alberto Garzón of United Left: “We need to be audacious and brave, and make changes to the Constitution after 40 years. The following generations are at stake.”

Socialist Party (PSOE) spokeswoman Margarita Robles expresses her party’s support for the government: “I agree with your words because we are experiencing very difficult and very serious times, and that’s why we believe this is a time for politics. We Socialists defend the constitutional framework because many within the PSOE paid with their freedom in order to obtain such a framework. Many Socialists, and many Catalans, paid for it with their freedoms.”

Mariano Rajoy ends his address inside Spanish Congress to an ovation from his Popular Party.

Rajoy: “We’ve been together for centuries, and we have been able to draw strength from our unity. And Spain wants Catalonia, with its culture, its language and its personality. I am seeing a serene Spain, filled with thousands of Spaniards who have taken to the streets, also the streets of Catalonia, to proclaim their love for their country. For all of them, it is necessary to end the present fracture by displaying serenity and prudence, working towards the goal of restoring social harmony.”

Rajoy: “Borrowing from Felipe VI’s own words: we will overcome this because we believe in our country and because our democratic principles are solid.”

Rajoy: “No doubt it is still possible to talk in a situation like this one. The framework of our common existence can be improved, but always within our existing institutions. Even constitutional reform could be addressed, but only through the channels created for such a matter.”

Rajoy: “No European constitution recognizes the right to self-determination. The independence of Catalonia goes against all rules of international law.”

Rajoy: “I am a firm supporter of dialogue, but I should warn that it is not possible to accept a unilateral imposition of viewpoints that one of the parties cannot accept. And national sovereignty and where it rests cannot be negotiated. This is something that should be taken into account by the well-intentioned mediators who have stepped up.”

Rajoy: “The solution involves healing the wounds. Catalonia is a place where everyone can be different without anyone feeling better than anyone else. And in order to restore this harmony, we need to be able to count on the deal-oriented Catalanism that has managed to make its own achievements universal.”

Rajoy: “It is urgent to return to legality quickly, to prevent further economic decline and social tension. Never in history had citizens enjoyed more freedom than they do now. Separatism is about to ruin Catalonia’s best historical period ever.”

Rajoy: “We have lately seen citizens confronting one another, judges getting harassed, dissidents targeted by threatening messages on walls, and even harassment of law enforcement officers.”

Rajoy: “Either the law is the axis around which coexistence revolves, or else society becomes atomized into an endless series of conflicts, paving the way for chaos, creating fear, destroying the social harmony and liquidating people’s wellbeing.”

Rajoy: “Democracy cannot be exercised outside the rules that govern it; wherever these rules are violated, democracy does not exist. To vote against democracy or outside democracy is not democracy.”