According to Association press
(The president of the Catalonia regional
government, Quim Torra, speaks during an
interview with the Associated Press at the Palau
de la Generalitat in Barcelona, Spain, June 25,
2018,.)
From Barcelona SpainCatalonia's new
separatist chief plans to deliver one message to
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez in their
highly-anticipated meeting next month: an
authorized ballot over Catalan secession from
Spain is the only solution to the country's worst
political crisis in decades.
"We will go to the meeting with the Spanish
Prime Minister ready to discuss the major
issue... which is the right to self-determination
for Catalonia,'' Catalonia's regional president
Quim Torra told The Associated Press in an
interview on Monday. "We won't budge from it."
Sanchez, who like Torra has come to power in
recent weeks, invited Torra to a meeting in
Madrid on July 9.
It will be the first meeting between the heads of
Spain's central and Catalonia's regional
governments since Torra's predecessor Carles
Puigdemont defied Spanish authorities and held
an illegal referendum before making an
ineffective declaration of independence last
October. The moves won no support
internationally and led to a crackdown by Spain,
which took over running regional affairs until
earlier this month.
Sanchez's predecessor, former Prime Minister
Mariano Rajoy, had repeatedly rejected requests
to authorize a formal Catalan referendum on
independence.
Torra said that he welcomed the new Spanish
government's willingness to talk, but he added:
"Until we can vote, and vote in a referendum
that is legal, binding and has been recognized by
both parties as valid, then it is possible that we
will never find a solution."
Polls and recent elections show that the 7.5
million residents of the wealthy region are
roughly split down the middle over the question
of independence. When asked about the millions
of Catalans who do not want to put up a border
and cease being Spanish, Torra said that "all of
us form part of the same community."
Torra, 55, is a fervent Catalan nationalist who
has had to apologize for his anti-Spanish views
expressed in articles and social media posts that
his critics have called xenophobic. He was hand-
picked by Puigdemont in May to carry on
leading the independence cause while
Puigdemont fights extradition back to Spain from
Germany.
Sanchez, the head of Spain's Socialists, took
power at the beginning of this month by ousting
Rajoy in a no-confidence vote after a major
court ruling into a corruption case involving
Rajoy's conservative party.
Sanchez's government has distanced itself from
Rajoy's hard-line approach by proposing to
amend the Spanish Constitution to create what it
calls a "federal model" for Spain that would
apparently increase the already significant
degree of self-governance enjoyed by the
regions. Catalonia, for example, has a large
amount of control over education — which is
mainly in the Catalan language — and runs its
own police, hospitals and prisons.
Torra, however, said that the only reworking of
the Constitution that would satisfy Catalonia's
secessionists would be one that includes the
right to vote on founding a new European state
for the northeastern corner of the Iberian
Peninsula.
"Nobody should expect [.] that we will
renounce'' aspirations on independence, Torra
said. "Until we resolve the question of self-
determination it is very difficult for the situation
in Catalonia to change."
Before his meeting with Sanchez, Torra will visit
Washington, D.C. this week to attend an event at
the Smithsonian "Folklife Festival," which this
year will feature Catalan traditional culture.
Torra said he will use the trip to the United
States to try to drum up support for the
separatist cause and the release of nine high-
profile Catalan separatist who are in jail while
they await trial for their role in last year's failed
breakaway attempt.
"We are going to make use of every chance we
have [in Washington] to send this message,"
Torra said.
The separatists were jailed while Puigdemont
and other collaborators fled the country to avoid
summons by a Spanish judge. Those leaders who
remained in Spain were imprisoned due to the
flight risk they posed and the threat of them
continuing to push for secession.
In another move that many hope marks a
thawing of relations between Madrid and
Barcelona, Torra met with Pablo Iglesias, the
leader of Spain's far-left Podemos party, on
Monday. Torra said he would also meet with
Alberto Garzon, the leader of Spain's United
Left, next week, ahead of his sit-down with
Sanchez.
(The president of the Catalonia regional
government, Quim Torra, speaks during an
interview with the Associated Press at the Palau
de la Generalitat in Barcelona, Spain, June 25,
2018,.)
From Barcelona SpainCatalonia's new
separatist chief plans to deliver one message to
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez in their
highly-anticipated meeting next month: an
authorized ballot over Catalan secession from
Spain is the only solution to the country's worst
political crisis in decades.
"We will go to the meeting with the Spanish
Prime Minister ready to discuss the major
issue... which is the right to self-determination
for Catalonia,'' Catalonia's regional president
Quim Torra told The Associated Press in an
interview on Monday. "We won't budge from it."
Sanchez, who like Torra has come to power in
recent weeks, invited Torra to a meeting in
Madrid on July 9.
It will be the first meeting between the heads of
Spain's central and Catalonia's regional
governments since Torra's predecessor Carles
Puigdemont defied Spanish authorities and held
an illegal referendum before making an
ineffective declaration of independence last
October. The moves won no support
internationally and led to a crackdown by Spain,
which took over running regional affairs until
earlier this month.
Sanchez's predecessor, former Prime Minister
Mariano Rajoy, had repeatedly rejected requests
to authorize a formal Catalan referendum on
independence.
Torra said that he welcomed the new Spanish
government's willingness to talk, but he added:
"Until we can vote, and vote in a referendum
that is legal, binding and has been recognized by
both parties as valid, then it is possible that we
will never find a solution."
Polls and recent elections show that the 7.5
million residents of the wealthy region are
roughly split down the middle over the question
of independence. When asked about the millions
of Catalans who do not want to put up a border
and cease being Spanish, Torra said that "all of
us form part of the same community."
Torra, 55, is a fervent Catalan nationalist who
has had to apologize for his anti-Spanish views
expressed in articles and social media posts that
his critics have called xenophobic. He was hand-
picked by Puigdemont in May to carry on
leading the independence cause while
Puigdemont fights extradition back to Spain from
Germany.
Sanchez, the head of Spain's Socialists, took
power at the beginning of this month by ousting
Rajoy in a no-confidence vote after a major
court ruling into a corruption case involving
Rajoy's conservative party.
Sanchez's government has distanced itself from
Rajoy's hard-line approach by proposing to
amend the Spanish Constitution to create what it
calls a "federal model" for Spain that would
apparently increase the already significant
degree of self-governance enjoyed by the
regions. Catalonia, for example, has a large
amount of control over education — which is
mainly in the Catalan language — and runs its
own police, hospitals and prisons.
Torra, however, said that the only reworking of
the Constitution that would satisfy Catalonia's
secessionists would be one that includes the
right to vote on founding a new European state
for the northeastern corner of the Iberian
Peninsula.
"Nobody should expect [.] that we will
renounce'' aspirations on independence, Torra
said. "Until we resolve the question of self-
determination it is very difficult for the situation
in Catalonia to change."
Before his meeting with Sanchez, Torra will visit
Washington, D.C. this week to attend an event at
the Smithsonian "Folklife Festival," which this
year will feature Catalan traditional culture.
Torra said he will use the trip to the United
States to try to drum up support for the
separatist cause and the release of nine high-
profile Catalan separatist who are in jail while
they await trial for their role in last year's failed
breakaway attempt.
"We are going to make use of every chance we
have [in Washington] to send this message,"
Torra said.
The separatists were jailed while Puigdemont
and other collaborators fled the country to avoid
summons by a Spanish judge. Those leaders who
remained in Spain were imprisoned due to the
flight risk they posed and the threat of them
continuing to push for secession.
In another move that many hope marks a
thawing of relations between Madrid and
Barcelona, Torra met with Pablo Iglesias, the
leader of Spain's far-left Podemos party, on
Monday. Torra said he would also meet with
Alberto Garzon, the leader of Spain's United
Left, next week, ahead of his sit-down with
Sanchez.
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