Esteban Duarte
Rajoy renews vow not to hold talks with Mas
By Esteban Duarte
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy says he won’t engage in negotiations with Catalonia’s regional president Artur Mas that would put the country’s integrity at risk.
“I have never negotiated, and neither will I, about Spaniards’ equality, neither on their right to decide what their country should be,” Rajoy said at a People’s Party conference in Barcelona, his first visit to Catalonia in six months. “We have always supported dialogue within the law.”
The prime minister is trying to repel a surge in support for independence in Spain’s largest regional economy as Mas rides a wave of popularity after delivering Catalans an illegal November 9 ballot on independence in defiance of the government and the Constitutional Court. The extent of Rajoy’s agenda has disappointed some Spanish unionist supporters.
“It would be good if he really took a ride across Catalonia and talked to people, especially those people who have stopped feeling Spanish,” said Jose Ramon Bosch, chairman of Societat Civil Catalana, a civil society group campaigning to stay with Spain. “He is the prime minister of all Spaniards, including those who voted on November 9.”
Rajoy’s People’s Party has slipped to third place in recent national polls. Some of Rajoy’s critics say he’s used legal arguments to avoid a political debate on the situation in Catalonia, while others accuse him of neglecting his duty by not shutting down the illegal vote.
“During all these years we have ensured that Catalonia was financed and that’s very positive,” said Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said in a press conference yesterday, referring to the central-government-sponsored regional rescue fund, of which Catalonia is its largest user. “We are talking about education, health, medicines, social services and even salaries.”
Mas said this week he aims to win a mandate for independence by calling an early regional election and then entering an 18-month transition period ending with a final referendum. Pro-secession parties should field a single list of candidates to increase the chance of winning an outright majority, Mas said in a November 25 speech in Barcelona in front thousands of supporters including his separatist rival Oriol Junqueras. “It’s not normal that a country’s population can’t express its opinion about the future of its own country,” said Mas, who is facing a possible criminal investigation for holding the independence vote on November 9. “We are not under normal conditions.”
While 81 percent of voters on November 9 backed independence, Rajoy has argued the turnout of 37 percent showed most Catalans were opposed to a split. Support for independence was 45 percent last month compared with 28 percent when Rajoy took office, according to a survey by the Catalan government pollster.
“The real fact is that the big international propaganda operation that some people had ready for November 9 collapsed without much noise,” Rajoy said Saturday. “It’s not proper that in Catalonia the society was divided, or its plurality was denied.”
The Catalan government has asked the region’s media watchdog to examine whether radio stations Onda Cero, SER and Cope should face penalties for refusing to air free advertisements promoting the Nov. 9 vote, a spokesman for the regulator Xavier Margarit said by phone. The regulator was already investigating after receiving complaints against the broadcasters from 60 individuals, he said.
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Rajoy renews vow not to hold talks with Mas
By Esteban Duarte
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy says he won’t engage in negotiations with Catalonia’s regional president Artur Mas that would put the country’s integrity at risk.
“I have never negotiated, and neither will I, about Spaniards’ equality, neither on their right to decide what their country should be,” Rajoy said at a People’s Party conference in Barcelona, his first visit to Catalonia in six months. “We have always supported dialogue within the law.”
The prime minister is trying to repel a surge in support for independence in Spain’s largest regional economy as Mas rides a wave of popularity after delivering Catalans an illegal November 9 ballot on independence in defiance of the government and the Constitutional Court. The extent of Rajoy’s agenda has disappointed some Spanish unionist supporters.
“It would be good if he really took a ride across Catalonia and talked to people, especially those people who have stopped feeling Spanish,” said Jose Ramon Bosch, chairman of Societat Civil Catalana, a civil society group campaigning to stay with Spain. “He is the prime minister of all Spaniards, including those who voted on November 9.”
Rajoy’s People’s Party has slipped to third place in recent national polls. Some of Rajoy’s critics say he’s used legal arguments to avoid a political debate on the situation in Catalonia, while others accuse him of neglecting his duty by not shutting down the illegal vote.
“During all these years we have ensured that Catalonia was financed and that’s very positive,” said Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said in a press conference yesterday, referring to the central-government-sponsored regional rescue fund, of which Catalonia is its largest user. “We are talking about education, health, medicines, social services and even salaries.”
Mas said this week he aims to win a mandate for independence by calling an early regional election and then entering an 18-month transition period ending with a final referendum. Pro-secession parties should field a single list of candidates to increase the chance of winning an outright majority, Mas said in a November 25 speech in Barcelona in front thousands of supporters including his separatist rival Oriol Junqueras. “It’s not normal that a country’s population can’t express its opinion about the future of its own country,” said Mas, who is facing a possible criminal investigation for holding the independence vote on November 9. “We are not under normal conditions.”
While 81 percent of voters on November 9 backed independence, Rajoy has argued the turnout of 37 percent showed most Catalans were opposed to a split. Support for independence was 45 percent last month compared with 28 percent when Rajoy took office, according to a survey by the Catalan government pollster.
“The real fact is that the big international propaganda operation that some people had ready for November 9 collapsed without much noise,” Rajoy said Saturday. “It’s not proper that in Catalonia the society was divided, or its plurality was denied.”
The Catalan government has asked the region’s media watchdog to examine whether radio stations Onda Cero, SER and Cope should face penalties for refusing to air free advertisements promoting the Nov. 9 vote, a spokesman for the regulator Xavier Margarit said by phone. The regulator was already investigating after receiving complaints against the broadcasters from 60 individuals, he said.
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