Mas: ‘The world has seen that Catalonia is determined to go ahead with this process’

Former Catalan President, Artur Mas, praised ‘the huge mobilisations’ which have taken the streets of Catalonia for the last five years on the 11^th of September, through which ‘the world has seen that Catalonia is determined to go ahead with this process’. In an interview with CNA in London, Mas admitted that ‘it’s difficult to make the world understand’ why Catalonia is not independent ‘after such big demonstrations’ but pointed out that ‘translating all these aspirations into specific facts is not easy’. In this sense, he urged the Spanish Government to hold a referendum in order to ‘count whether or not there is a real social majority in favour of independence’ and start ‘creating structures of state’. However, he also lamented that ‘sitting down at the table’ with Madrid’s politicians ‘is not a realistic situation’.

How is the pro-independence movement seen abroad?
‘For the first time in decades we have had the real possibility to explain to everybody the political aspirations and the national aspirations of an old nation, Catalonia, that is absolutely alive and that is looking for a better future’, Mas told the CNA.

‘The world has seen the huge mobilisations, the huge demonstrations of people on the streets of Barcelona but also on the roads of our county. People in the world have seen how broad the majority in Catalonia in favour of self-determination is. People in the world have seen there is also determination to go ahead with this process.’

‘Sometimes it’s difficult to make the world understand why we’re not independent already’
According to Mas, ‘sometimes it’s a little bit difficult to make the world understand why we’re not independent right now after such big demonstrations’. ‘It’s probably shocking for a lot of people to see millions of people demonstrating in favour of a political idea, but when you have to translate all these aspirations and all these wishes into specific facts and good results it’s not that easy’. In order to turn Catalonia’s aspirations into real facts, it is necessary to ‘follow the roadmap’ and ‘pass specific laws in the Catalan Parliament’. Mas also pointed to the need to ‘create structures of state’ in order to ‘become an independent country’. ‘This is the homework we’re doing right now; and all these things are absolutely necessary because without these structures of state and without these laws it won’t be possible to get independence’, he assured.

‘Our model is the British one, but in Spain this is not a realistic situation’
Former Catalan President assured that Catalonia is ‘on the way to trying to obtain these good results’ whilst at the same time ‘pointing out that other countries, other nations, such as Scotland were granted the right to vote in a specific referendum on independence, while in Catalonia we are finding obstacles in order to simply vote’.

‘We’ve always said that our model is the British one, in the sense that we should be able to sit down at the table to talk to each other, in this case with the government in Madrid, to negotiate and reach agreements’, Mas admitted. The best case scenario would be ‘voting again in a referendum or in specific elections’ in order to ‘count whether or not there is a real social majority in favour of independence’. ‘There are no plans B, C nor D. This is the plan’, Mas stated and added that ‘it would be betterthat this plan would be implemented in accordance with the government in Madrid’.

However, he lamented that ‘in Spain this is not a realistic fact, a realistic situation’. Therefore, he stated that Catalans ‘have to go ahead with the process’ since it is known ‘that it would be extremely difficult to sit down at the table with the people in Madrid’. According to Mas, finding a solution to Catalonia’s political aspirations doesn’t only depend ‘on the will of the Catalan institutions and politicians, but also on the will of the Spanish institutions and politicians’. ‘What do we find in Madrid when we knock on the door?’ he asked rhetorically. ‘We find that there is nothing to ask for’ he said and lamented that the Spanish Government aims to ‘block everything’ Catalonia ‘aims to do in this field’.

‘We have the will, and we will find the way’
Therefore, and in view of the Spanish Government’s ‘stagnant position’, there are ‘only two possibilities left for the Catalan people: one is to stop everything, and this is something we are not going to do, and the other one is to go on, to go ahead. We are on route to freedom, so we have to follow this way’, he stated.

‘We’ve clear ideas, we’ve very significant and relevant social support, we’ve political parties firmly involved in this self-determination process and we’ve also the will to go on’, Mas emphasised. ‘Where there is a will, Churchill said many decades ago, there is a way. So, we have the will, and we will find the way.’