Catalan President Carles Puigdemont released a video statement in Barcelona on Wednesday claiming that Spanish King Felipe VI “owes respect”, to the Catalan vote, “because it is entrusted to him by the Constitution.”
SOT, Carles Puigdemont, Catalan President (Catalan): “We cannot share nor accept the message transmitted by the Head of the State to a sector of the population. The king adopts as his own the speech and politics of Rajoy’s government that have been catastrophic towards Catalonia and deliberately ignores the millions of Catalans who don’t share his views. He deliberately ignores the Catalans who were victims of police violence that has frozen the hearts of half of the world. The king has lost there an opportunity to address all citizens to whom the crown owes, and to which he owes respect because it is entrusted to him by the Constitution – a Constitution that gives it a moderating role that in no case has had, and that yesterday declined with hardness. Neither has he had an interest in knowing the opinions and vision of the Government of the Generalitat at any moment of this crisis, and has accepted to assume an inadequate role that only seeks to alleviate the decisions that the Spanish Government has long studied to liquidate the aspirations of sovereignty of the Catalan people. Some aspirations that he does not hesitate to treat as criminal and illegitimate, and against which he uses unlimited resources”.
SOT, Carles Puigdemont, Catalan President (Catalan): “That’s why I reiterate what I said Monday: this moment calls for mediation. We have received several proposals in the last few hours, and we will receive more: they all know firsthand my willingness to undertake a mediation process. We will reiterate it as many times as we need. Peace, dialogue and agreement are part of the political culture of our people. However, we have not received any positive response from the State to any of the mediation options that are already on the table, and I believe, in all sincerity, that it is again a serious irresponsibility not to attend to the requests sent by people from within and from outside Catalonia and the Spanish State so that this conflict is ingrained from politics and not from the police”.
SOT, Carles Puigdemont, Catalan President (Catalan): “Unfortunately not everyone would want things to go well for us. Some pretend to present the Catalan claim as illegitimate, illegal and criminal. There are those who think that pursuing ballot boxes, ballot papers and voters is an inexcusable requirement of the rule of law, and that anything goes to prevent a people from expressing themselves and deciding. We are all very calm and serene, and above all very comforted: what we have done, what we are doing and what we will do is what other people have already done and other people will do in the future. We follow a path democratically marked by the will of the citizens, and this instead of being fought should begin to be understood and be respected”.