Elections should be called within the next 6 months, during which time Mas also insisted that parties have to better explain what the independent state will be like.
The President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, gave a solemn speech on Tuesday evening in Barcelona to propose the next steps in Catalonia’s self-determination process. “It is time for the definitive consultation vote” on independence to take place, Mas stated after 2.3 million people participated in a symbolic vote on independence on November 9.
Taking into account the Spanish Government’s no-to-everything attitude over the last 2 years, the “only tool” to allow citizens to decide on their own collective future as a nation is early elections to the Catalan Parliament, organised within the current legal framework, he emphasised. Mas affirmed being “ready” to call such elections but under a specific condition: parties and civil society organisations have to transform them into a ‘de facto’ referendum on independence, as otherwise there is no need for early elections, he stressed.
However, Mas highlighted the urgent necessity to become an independent state in order to have “the tools” to improve the lives of citizens and to better fight poverty, unemployment or corruption, after “the Spanish State has let us down” on many occasions. Now,political parties should be “generous” and respected personalities and professionals from the Catalan society should run in a single list that should clearly stand for independence, making other issues secondary, according to Mas. If such a list obtained an absolute majority, independence should be negotiated with Spanish, European and international organisations within the next 18 months.
more in Vilaweb.cat (from Catalan News Agency)